Sociology on TV – Our Drugs War

This programme focuses on why users and dealers go back to their lives of dealing and taking drugs once they leave jail – the short answer seems to be that there is little opportunity to do anything else.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/our-drugs-war

Based in New York, the documentary follows Thomas Winston who is 28 years old and has spent 7 years in and out of jail for drug related offences. He is currently on a rehabilitation program which is providing him with job training and has him moved away from the area in which he grew up and became part of the drugs game.

The reasons for reoffending seam to be as follows –

  1. There is little opportunity to do anything else – Winston himself laments that during his first few times in jail, the focus was just on ‘jail jail jail’ rather than on what he could once he got out of jail – from what I can gather he has just finished his third or fourth spell inside (it’s not clear from the documentary) and has only now been offered a limited rehabilitation programme. This ‘lack of legitimate opportunity theme is repeated later on in the documentary when one dealer says that ‘we don’t do good because they don’t give us the opportunity to do good’
  2. It is economically irrational to not go back to dealing drugs – Winston’s rehabilitation officer points out that it is simply irrational for Winston to stick to his rehabilitation programme – because at best, with no education or work history, he will get a minimum wage job compared to the possibility of bringing in thousands of dollars a week dealing drugs. At one point the documentary goes into the hood, to witness one heavily masked drug dealer who has already taken in $1350 that day (approx £700) and in his own words ‘that’s not bad, it’s still early’
  3. The sense of injustice  – On a visit to a jail – the narrator points out that he is one of the few white faces in the institution, but according to criminal justice officials he speaks to and a human rights watch campaign whites are just as likely to buy and sell drugs as blacks and Hispanics. The dealers are aware of this – the film even follows one black dealer on his journey into a white middle class area with over a $1000 of coke bagged up and ready to sell to the white market (heavily cut) The difference is not in use – it is in the policing – heavy in black areas and non –existent in white areas.
  4. Dealers see all work as ‘hussling’ and say that their type of work is only illegal because the people who make the law aren’t making any money out of drug dealing. They see their work as equally legitimate to the work of regular people.
  5. Finally, at one point we get to see Winston rapping where he asks the question ‘how bad is a crime that brings in money when everywhere around you in society you messages telling you to get rich and spend.

 One final thing to mention is that this documentary also functions as a critique of the ‘tough on drugs policies’ – mainly because they simply are not working!

So how valid is this as a piece of research – well it may only follow one person –(actually it does follow someone else too, but I am only focussing on Winston) – but biographical accounts of perceived lack of opportunities and a sense of social injustice have been reported by many sociologists – The work of Sudhir Venkatesh and Peter Squires for example. See my blogs for more details on these-   

https://realsociology.edublogs.org/2010/08/08/sociology-on-the-tv-gun-nation/

https://realsociology.edublogs.org/2010/08/07/book-review-%e2%80%93-gang-leader-for-a-day/

One interesting thing to note is that unlike Venkatesh’s gang leader for a day –there appears to be less evidence here of organised gangs on these estates – the dealers seem to be individual operators – although this may just be because of the nature of the methodology – a documentary rather than 10 years of overt PO.

This documentary should be of interest to Sociology students because we see here support for Merton’s strain theory here and a critique of prison as a solution to drug crime.

The programme ends abruptly by informing us that Thomas Winston was shot dead on Christmas day 2009.

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