Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter say in a new documentary that America’s “War on Drugs” has been a failure.
"If all you do is try to find a police or military solution to the problem, a lot of people die and it doesn't solve the problem," Clinton says in the documentary, “Breaking the Taboo,” which debuts on Friday.
"It hasn't worked."
“Taboo” chronicles 40 years of the nation’s battle against drugs, according to
U.S. News & World Report. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, it praises Clinton and others who "have had the guts to change their minds."
Drug budgets, marijuana arrests and the numbers of those sent to prison on drug charges increased during the Clinton White House, U.S. News reports.
The documentary contends that President Barack Obama's drug policies aren't working, despite a request for $25.6 billion for drug control in 2013, the highest annual amount ever.
But too much of those funds are going toward enforcement, critics say, even though the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says most is intended for prevention and treatment, U.S. News reports.
For his part, Carter said in the documentary that current penalties against drug offenders are a major issue.
"Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself," Carter writes on the film's website.
The documentary is produced by Spray Films and Sundog Pictures, U.S. News reports.
See the trailer below.
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