Cocaine: History Between the Lines
The cocaine industry is littered with unimaginable sums of cash and more than 35,000 murders in the past five years. Much of this violence occurs on the border between the United States and Mexico. This is just one aspect of the cocaine epidemic which is explored in the feature-length documentary Cocaine: History Between the Lines.
It was always like this. As the film shows, the public perception of cocaine has undergone a fascinating transition since it was first introduced in the late nineteenth century. Once it became popularized, it was promoted as a medicinal cure-all by none other than Sigmund Freud. But with the passage of time, the drug's highly addicted qualities began to gain notice, and it was soon deemed illegal.
That hasn't stopped the proliferation of the drug in cities across America or with the cartels that continue to feed at the trough of this $30 billion dollar a year business. Cocaine use may have peaked decades ago, but it's never gone away. With the advent of crack cocaine in the 1980s, the trade became deadlier and more toxic than ever before. The high demand for the product has rendered more than 70% of Mexico under the control of the smuggling trade. American law enforcement agencies from Texas to California are fearful that this nefarious element will soon enter their country unchallenged. According to the officers interviewed in the film, border security is lax, and bureaucrats in Washington are doing little to remedy the crisis. For them, the discovery of a dismembered body – whether it be a trafficker, illegal immigrant or innocent bystander - has become a daily occurrence.
This harsh reality is lost on most of the users themselves, who run the gamut from the hippest clubbers to the homeless population across America. Each user profiled in the film shares their experiences with the alluring white powder. Whether they use the drug recreationally or habitually, they have all witnessed the hold it can have on a life.
From the personal to the political, Cocaine: History Between the Lines is a comprehensive account of a drug that has left much devastation in its wake.
This documentary is a joke!!
Serves more as a fricking instructional guide on how to use the drugs!!! Does not mention these clowns moving onto stealing peoples toasters in the middle of the night, as a means of funding their fecked up disgusting filthy habbit!! What a frickin disgrace!!!
I have to agree G and thank you for the doc
The drug war was a means to get involved in and control the drug trade, then use the profits to fund covert wars with the added benefit of creating social problems and crime which allows law enforcement to more aggressively police the public. The shit is brought in aboard US military planes.
Where does the government's alleged authority to regulate what we put
Into our bodies come from? Do we have no right to experiment with our own nervous system? Has my body become government property? How did weeds become so expensive? War on drugs?
Bulsh* please have an objective opinion on the issue.. At least mention some other examples in the world, e.g., Portugal. Violence only spreads violence!!!
Good program . However there was no discussion about the banking and money laundering . No discussion about attempts by the NYSE to get the cartels to invest their money. The documentary spoke about left wing trafficking but failed to mention the Nazi connections behind the Medellin and Cali cartels.
Watching the women smiling and describing their use of cocaine as if it falls from heaven is typical f how most Americans are oblivious or simply could care less about the suffering involved in the supply chain to provide the cheap silly products and drugs that they feel are their right to have.
What a joke. Make it legal and available through pharmacies with either a prescription or a government waiver. cheap, clean, and no more drug war on coke. Of course all the agencies that suck up money for the War on Drugs would not get any more...