Brad Pitt Slams the Drug War, Wants to Rethink Drug Policy Valerie Tejeda - The Fix
go to original October 15, 2012

Eugene Jarecki's The House I Live In takes on the 40-year history of the "War on Drugs," exploring in depth why it has been such a costly failure. (Read more here)

When a movie star as A-list as Brad Pitt talks, people tend to listen. The 48-year-old actor has been speaking candidly about his past experience with drugs following a screening of The House I Live In - a documentary about the drug war which Pitt produced.

“My drug days are long since passed but it's certainly true that I could probably land in any city in any state and get you whatever you wanted. I could find anything you were looking for," he says. "Give me 24 hours or so. And yet we still support this charade called the drug war. We have spent a trillion dollars. It's lasted for over 40 years. A lot of people have lost their lives for it. And yet we still talk about it like it's this success.”

The sometime sexiest man in the world then explained why he thinks the drug war has failed: “The drug war is actually being used to hold a portion of our society down. It's staggering to me what is being perpetrated in this name of a war on... immorality. It's criminal in itself. And we've got to look at that. We have to change that.”

The House I Live In examines different sides of the issue, but comes to the same conclusion - citing over $1 trillion in government costs, 45 million arrests in the past 40 years, and the fact that drugs are cheaper and more available today than ever.

“I know people are suffering because of it," says Pitt. "I know I've lived a very privileged life in comparison and I can't stand for it. To me, there's no question; we have to rethink this policy and we have to rethink it now.”

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