Some arguments made in this film:
- drug laws are targeted toward specific groups of people as a means of control; they used to target people by race, but now target people by economic class (i.e: poor white folks are fair game).
- the "drug epidemic" is mostly fabricated, due to biased reporting by media outlets. (Not saying drug addiction isn't real, just that it has been misrepresented).
- The business practices of the private prison industry cause small towns to become economically dependent on them.
The best part of this film is that it features extensive commentary by David Simon. Before he created The Wire, he was one of the "city desk" editors at a Baltimore paper, and a lot of the material in that show was based on the stuff he came across while working there.
It doesn't have a lot of new revelations, but I like the way they frame it.
