On this episode we talk about an issue that permeates the fabric of society in almost every way possible and is considered a long term malicious attacks on American society and one of the most insidious systems of class based justice ever created; The War on Drugs.

In the 1970s America was facing a crisis; a moral and social cancer that threatened the American way of life. Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs to combat their corrosive effect on the youth of America. Others claim it was an attempt to maintain control on a population that was becoming wise to the marinations of the political elite and the culture those new citizens were growing up in had harmless party drugs at its centre.

Laws and governmental organisations that exist today were created in this time and in the 1980s during the crack cocaine epidemic plaguing American cities; Reagan announced the Zero Tolerance policy which led to hundreds of thousands of young men and women being incarcerated for much longer than necessary. The prison industrial complex grew from this and instead of compassion for addiction, a punitive and unproductive policy of mass incarceration began in America.

Vilifying drug addicts is one thing, but interfering in the politics of the countries where the drugs are grown throws a suspicious light on the motives behind this so called War on Drugs. The DEA and CIA were in the headlines thanks to whistle blowers like Gary Webb. We look at all this and how other countries, like Portugal, are leading the charge in the management of addiction and narcotic drug use.