In addition to his film Killing Them Softly (out in November) and his Chanel contract (the ads are due out tomorrow), Brad Pitt has another side project to promote: he’s the executive producer on a documentary called The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki. The documentary is about “what President Richard Nixon coined ‘the war on drug abuse’ in 1972. The film looks at how things have exploded since then, how we ever got there in the first place, and what the hell it all really means.” Brad made an appearance at an LA screening for the film on Friday night (we don’t have those photos, sorry), and Brad ended up discussing his own drug use and his thoughts on The War On Drugs (and Drug Users). You can read the full interview here, at HuffPo, and here are some highlights:
Brad’s drug confession: “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. 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.”
What Brad thinks of ‘The War on Drugs’: “[It] is possibly a barrier to keep the impoverished down. To keep them shackled. And I thought well that [producing this documentary] may be even too liberal for me [laughs], but we just came off of Hurricane Katrina. We had just witnessed that there was a particular portion of our society that was being ignored and that this could be the case.”
Brad on why we don’t even talk about drugs in this election: “It’s been this taboo subject forever -– unless you’re claiming victory for a bust or a win. It’s absolutely taboo to talk about it as a failure. Which it is. It’s an incredible failure… If we spent a fraction of that on education …”
Brad on what the “War on Drugs” is really about: “Certainly that it’s a backwards strategy that perpetuates itself. But also Eugene came at it in a way that I had never thought about before. That 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.”
How we end the War on Drugs: “The only way to end the war on drugs is to take the profit out of it. I know this comes with a whole other host of problems and I don’t know if I’m actually presenting it as a reality, but we have to look at the what-if-everything-was-legal and people were allowed to make their own choices. And we were treating it less as a criminal issue and more as a sickness. People do drugs to escape. We’re not talking about experimentation. People with long-term drug use are escaping.”
Brad on de-criminalizing drugs: “There’s another issue. You can control quality. The quality of drugs is higher than it’s ever been, but it’s still all over the map. If you decriminalize, then they could control the quality.”
The HuffPo interview is actually with Brad and the director, Eugene Jarecki, and Jarecki has a lot of interesting stuff to say about decriminalization and how our war on drugs has fundamentally changed the Mexican economy. It’s a fascinating discussion, and even if you don’t agree with Brad and Jarecki, I do wish this was a larger discussion in our society, and I wish politicians (from both parties) could discuss this situation with an eye towards the realpolitik.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Gosh… Son of a b–ch is intelligent too… He’s got a point. *sigh*
Not really surprised if he had a past with drugs or else, everyone has their share of foolishness.
Well the problem with drugs is that same money runs in politics.. Hence why they won’t touch the subject.. Some drugs money financed some electoral campaigns unfortunately.
What are the pictures below? Is it from The Counselor?
Yeah they are from the counselor set.
Brad has become surprisingly polarising lately. I guess AJ did rub off on him.
I can’t believe I’m actually agreeing with Brad.
Did they ask if Angie still does drugs? 🙂
He looks like William Macy in that top pic
William Macy with a side order of Jesus.
Maybe…but I’d still hit it, lol.
I too see a resemblance to William H. Macy. (No offense to Mr. Macy.) But BP is looking like hell these days.
I don’t think everything should be legalized. But we all know that the people locked up in jail are not the ones that are behind it all.
I hope the this plays in my area I would love to see it
he has the fame, money, and power to get these things made, which is a very good thing.
however, he just comes off as hollow when reciting lines/ideas from those much more informed than him.
he is a parrot.
Sad to say but Jackie I agree with you. I actually agree with very thing “he” said in the interview clip above but, I think you’re right about him parroting the doc director.
A few years ago I saw Brad on Charlie Rose and it was evident then that the guy is not as bright as he likes people to think. It embarrassed me to watch him try so hard to appear intellectual when he’s not. And that’s fine…but be true to yourself. He was parroting others on that show as well, only he wasn’t as good at it as he seems to be now.
That said, I’ve thought for years we should legalize pot at the very least. And we need to stop filling our jails with people caught using or holding. Big waste of tax dollars!
Maybe he doesn’t smoke anymore but you can tell that he still likes his booze. You can see it in his bloated, old face.
Legend of the Fall part 2 pls.
according to Tarantino,Pitt has a fantastic weed in his refrigerator
but Pitt’s point of view is clever here
Well, that makes me like him even more:)
You keep weed in a refrigerator?
Sorry, that just really surprised me! I think it’s fairly obvious I know next to nothing about drugs beside the negative effects.
It keeps it fresher and it won’t burn as quickly. Not only preserves quality, but saves $, too.
Or so I’ve been told.
The war on drugs is actually more of a war on organized crime, which at this point is becoming as well equipped as a small country’s army, even owning submarines and all kinds of sophisticated jets and airplanes. They don’t tell most of this stuff to the general public, especially in America, because it’s pretty bad. Some of these cartels burn entire Mexican towns to the ground, just for kicks and to show people what they can do. They kill babies, children. They are worse than the Taliban or any other terrorist group in the world.
Legalizing drugs wouldn’t help because it’s not their only means for profit. Some divisions deal arms, others are hitmen for wealthy people and countless smaller divisions abduct wealthy people and hold them for ransom. Heck, they even go after small business owners. I mean it’s an entire industry and they have friends everywhere, like a secret society they filter the police, the army, etc.
It’s not just about drugs. But America’s youth has certainly helped finance the worst crimes ever committed in Mexico and South America.
So yeah, it’s a lost war but only because these cartels have way more power and resources than people know. It’s terrifying.
Profits on illegal drugs are a major source of profit to organised crime – without those profits, sure they would still have other sources of income, but they would nevertheless take a massive hit. Decriminalising drugs wouldn’t be enough to kill off the cartels completely, but it would surely help to reduce their scale and size.
Yeah, I agree a little with both of you. The cartels have moved onto a whole new level when it comes to organized crime but it is true that drugs are a huge, massive portion of their “income”. We should have dealt with this sooner, now we’re trying to put band-aids on open arteries. Excuse the image.
I do wonder if this theory of taking the illegality out of the equation and making things better would actually work. I say at this point we have not much to lose. We’re paying for the drugs, we’re paying to fight them in treatment programs, we’re paying for prisons, trials, police, kids dying, and of course we’re going to war in Middle Eastern countries and help create new narco states (see Afghanistan). It is not working and it is effin’ expensive to boot.
Then again, diamonds are most certainly legal and they’re still funding wars. I don’t know, someone smarter than moi needs to deal with this. 🙂
However, Brad Pitt is not the first one to point to the issue. I don’t particularly like him nor do I dislike him but hey, if it helps the issue.
One of my teachers used to say that buying drugs is supporting terrorism in Mexico, South America, and even Afghanistan (Heroin). Honestly, kind of have a point…
I’ve seen too many people grow up with drug abuse in their lives and its disgusting that rehab centers are so expensive. Heroin is overtaking Meth in a lot of places and these blighted small towns with little industry are becoming drug havens like the inner city was in the 90s with the crack epidemic.
What gets me is the fact that more people are killed by cartels and the Drug War in Mexico every year than our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I’m not saying the two situations are exactly the same, but that’s a hell of a lot of people being brutally murdered every year, and it’s not really talked about that much here in the US.
I grew up about 100 miles from the border, and the changes in the last 15-20 years have been terrifying. Little tourist spots we used to go to have had huge, middle of the day gun battles, heads rolled into police stations, jails blown up to get prisoners out.
I’m ok with legalization, because the alternative we have now is devastating.
Tarantino’ story wasn’t all that long ago. It was a good one that involved them smoking hash out of coke cans at the French mansion. Come on, Brad, fess up.
Exactly. I’m not drinking the kool-aid.
Yeah. Smoking pot or hash is the same as hardcore drug use. Totally.
*side eye rolls Americans and their marijuana-inspired pearl-clutching*
It’s not a “hardcore” drug, but it’s still a drug and it’s illegal. And I don’t think Val was bashing him for smoking it, so calm down.
I have no problem with pot smoking, btw.
The same people who chug 4 cups of coffee a day,admitting withdrawl symptoms to their friends when they haven’t had enough, and still failing to realize that caffine is a drug.
I was going to bring this up. There’s no way that he doesn’t do drugs. And with 6 kids? There’s no way.
I thought it was common knowledge that he and Jen Aniston were potheads, but with 6 kids, maybe Ang put her foot down and said no way. I can see her laying down the law on that one, and I can see Brad going along with it. He comes across as more focused these days, and he’s sure open about his past usage, so I tend to believe him.
hahaha… bns, agree.
With 6 kids, if Brad isn’t smoking, then he’s drinking. 😀
I believe him,too,Vvy. He was interviewed about this awhile ago and talked in detail about his wake and bake period. He’d been smoking for years, but it didn’t get him to where he wanted to be, which is with a family. With them traveling all over the world and accompanied by children, it probably became too big a problem as well. No one needs a drug bust under those circumstances.
Shut up & stick to your day job! You have no idea about what your speaking. Legalizing drugs will mess up the addicts even more
Actually, it has been found that countries that decriminalized “drugs” removed the stigma of addiction and addicts were more likely to see a doctor and receive help for their disease. Addiction counseling and rehab facilities in the US are incredibly expensive thus leading to a larger addiction problem. The embarrassment factor is two-fold in the US. Not only is the disease itself taboo, but the treatment of it is so expensive that for most it is also an admission to a lower “social class”. You should read up on the subject, I bet you would be shocked at what it could do for the addiction problem in the US.
I don’t know where your information is coming from, but is totally false! There are many Recovery Center’s in the US who take indigent people, as well as, helping those who are unable to pay the full amount. Help is out there, you just have to ask for it! There is NO taboo to alcohol and drug addiction anymore. 1 out of every three women in the US is addicted to one or more Rx drugs… As a drug/alcohol counselor, I see it every day. That is just one of the many stats! If, and that is a big IF, marijuana were legalized, you would see even more addiction to harder drugs and Rx drugs.
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Maybe Pitt needs to talk to his buddy Obama about his wonderful ideas!
Not necessarily. Legalizing drugs could bring controls to the manufacturing process, and help with crime, especially robbery/theft.
An ex police chief (of Seattle) is on the record as saying all drugs should be legal, that too much money, time and manpower is wasted on trying to control drugs.
You ever see the inside of a meth lab?
Ever seen the destruction they cause when they blow up?
Ever seen someones face melted off because the batch they were cooking blew up in their face?
Yeah, lets legalize this crap.
Here in Vancouver, Canada pot is now decriminalized. It may as well be since a ton of people smoke it and grow it. It’s different from being completely legal though.
What!! I live in Vancouver. Pot is not decriminilized. Never will be with Harper in power! If anything he will make it worse for those who want to grow their own private little crop for personal use. They’ll be thrown in jail with the the pedophiles and murderers. In fact they receive a greater sentence than a pedophile.
Look at the larger picture. There will always be addiction – it’s part of the human condition. But legalization can help to reduce more widespread crime, as bluhare points out, and thus ameliorate the wider effect on society.
Methadone is a good example – if you can give a heroin addict a safe, controlled opiate as an alternative, you are reducing the chances they will commit crime to obtain an illegal drug.
wow, I would hope nowhere still uses Methadone as the go-to drug for government run drug programs. Such a dangerous poison! Where I live they switched to Subutex and Suboxone some time ago. More effective, and way less addictive and poisonous than Methadone!
This director knows what he’s talking about. I’ve seen him interviewed a few times and he is extremely knowledgeable about the subject. When he is questioned by skeptics, he has some very persuasive facts and can respond to anything he’s asked. I look forward to watching the documentary and I’m not a big documentary fan.
Final someten is ranking about it in the US. I am Mexican and boy, it is a blessing and a course to be neighbors of the USA. It is a great country, but with that guns policy, we are Inundated with ilegal guns that are easily bought over there, and the insatiable hunger for drugs makes the gangs fight violently for the routes.
So here are my 2 cents. Marijuana should be legalized – period. That fact that it’s criminalized is such a joke. Personally, I feel there should be an age restriction as there is with alcohol and that’s because of when and how the brain develops. We don’t need Idiocricity to actually happen. Also, legalizing marijuana will reduce or eliminate the need or desire for synthetic marijuana, which is truly dangerous.
I’m unsure about how I feel about legalizing cocaine but I feel strongly that meth should remain illegal. They have similarities but are still different beasts. One thing about legalizing cocaine is it could also be regulated and hopefully, eliminate the existence of bath salts.
It’s nice when an actor says something intelligent and worthwhile, I’ve always liked Brad for the simple reason that he wants to use his fame to help correct problems he sees, even if he isn’t particularly eloquent. The war on drugs is obviously a failure and the portion of the community he’s talking about are for the most part inner city African Americans, but also Latinos and whites who have been unfortunate enough to be born into poverty where crime is their only means of gain and drugs are their only means of escape. People don’t seem to realize that nobody ever ave them another option, or a chance to do more. They didn’t really even get the chance at a mcdonald’s job, let alone any kind of prosperous life, you know? People who want to keep treating them like criminals are, in my mind, either ignorant or callous and cold, but completely part of the problem. As Brad mentioned, they have a sickness and a problem that needs to be treated, they are not monsters who deserve to be locked up and their rights taken away. It’s a shame more people do not feel this way, and are ready and willing to keep throwing so many people’s lives away without considering what a massive failure this war has been.
Well said! I never realized they couldn’t even get hired at McDonalds.
Yes. One of our local politicians here in Chicago recently raised eyebrows for saying that “Ronald Reagan deserves a special place in hell for expanding the war on drugs.” She ended up backing down from her statement but taken in context that is exactly what she was talking about, how the inner city has been left devastated because of this failed “war.” Yet the only thing people could focus on was her invoking Reagan’s name so blasphemously.
Brad seems to have sacrificed a few brain cells to drug use.
Where do terrorists get their money? If you buy drugs, some of it probably comes from you.
The bottom line is simple: Terror and drug groups are linked in a mutually beneficial relationship by money, tactics, geography and politics.
Americans must understand that our individual choices about illicit drug use have the power to support or undermine our nation’s war on terrorism.
Legalizing illicit drug use would eventually turn the USA into a nation of zombies.
USA wars policies are all wrong including the war on drugs..and all failed .
zombies are what they want you to be afraid of but you know they are illusion don’t you?
YOu need to get out more. There are zombies walking around and working everywhere.
I haven’t read the full article yet, but legalizing drugs is a joke. Brad should consider looking into why the the Taliban has been able to hold fort in Afghanistan since 2001. One of the many reasons is the drug money that comes from the massive opium fields which is under the Taliban’s control. Europe and North America is the market they are catering to. Heroin production in Afghanistan is going up staggeringly each year. The “war on terror” is actually a failed war on drugs in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a narcotic state, but I’m also sorry to say the US benefits a lot from the narcotic-business while they are stationed in Afghanistan. Mostly to sway dissidents to the other side as opium production is very big there. There’s an excellent British documentary about it, but for the life of me can’t think of what it’s called. Also I suggest you read Foreign Policy’s ‘Think Again: The Afghan Drug Trade’ article. Very good at debunking myths surrounding opium, Afghanistan and the narcotic trade.
Leen, the Taliban had shut down opium production in 2001, months before the invasion, and had decreed growing poppies as un-Islamic. It was one of most successful anti-drug campaigns. Post- the invasion, it is the drug money that has helped the Taliban to keep the insurgency alive.
Anyway, after reading the entire article, they have a point that drug trade is very profitable and cutting off profits is one way to stop funding organized crimes and insurgencies. Cutting off profits means legalizing drugs.
Hi Mira
I want you to read this article
http://www.alternet.org/world/how-legalizing-drugs-would-strengthen-democracy-afghanistan-mexico
Well I dont live in US but I was at Berkeley and from the students I knew there it was easy to get pot (although I m from goa I never used before). I was a bit scared because I used to work in Singapore and drugs were strictly a no-no. But I was assured that US was very lax about the drug rules. That was my experience.
Apology to Americans, but I find their notions of black and white very funny. The politicians and media regulate the civil society in US and the general public mostly do not think on their own. Particularly about foreign affairs and US wars overseas.
I think some EU countries are doing very well legalising the drugs. I dont want to look stupid by discussing an issue which I fully don t know and which is about a country not mine, but I’d love to see this documentary.
@Mira, I’m not saying it’s not true the Taliban does not benefit from the narcotics in Afghanistan, but the Taliban aren’t the only ones who are in the narcotics trade either, the coalition government (backed by the US), other anti-Taliban insurgencies and dissidents are also just as involved in the trade.
I do believe that legalizing drugs would eliminate the ‘middle man’ which are a host of organized crime groups and warlords.
@Leen – Absolutely! That’s what I meant too but I guess I wasn’t clear. Taliban is benefiting from a slice of the pie. There are others too like you said the coalition government, the occupation forces etc. Heroin produced in Afghanistan has now found a huge market within the region – Pakistan, Iran, Central Asia, India, within Afghanistan and Russia. I have to read more about legalizing drugs, but I see the point in the need to cut off profits from drug trade. However, there will be other problems from legalization like drop in the drug price. Won’t this affect the usage? I think legalization should go hand-in-hand with very strict drug laws.
@Diana – Thanks for the link to the article. The drug laws in Southeast Asian countries are very strict. I don’t know if there’s a black market there, maybe in tourist places like Malaysia and Thailand. Still, it’s death warrant if one gets caught.
If drugs were legalised, governments could collect tax money off them (much as cigarettes and alcohol are currently an important source of tax receipts for most countries). Legalisation thus has the potential to reduce the amount of money terrorists make from drugs, and increase the amount of money available to legitimate governments to fight terrorism.
Agreed, but even the smaller step of decriminalizing drug use would allow states to address the issue of addiction more intelligently.
I agree.
I don’t know, the Netherlands are doing fine.
Really? High percentage alcohol is readily available to me, but I don’t drink it. Pot is easilt available to me, but I don’t smoke it, nor do my friends. It’s silly to treat the public like children and to take away their right to make choices for themselves. Everyone knows cigarettes cause lung cancer, but people have the right to choose their own vices, and many people don’t choose to use them. If someone wants to do drugs, then there is nothing that is going to stop them…and certainly the fact that they are illegal isn’t going to do it. It’s just going to put them in more jeopardy in order to do so. Making certain drugs legal is the only way to stop the terror.
Pot should be legal for sure,cause it can’t kill you in a second… not like the really scary drugs like meth and heroin.
Start by legalizing pot, and then see what happens. Amsterdam seems to be doing quite well with this philosophy.
I’m sorry about the misspellings auto correction hell. I thought I checked.
I meand that is great that someone is finally talking about it openly.
Annie, I agree with you, the gangs have branched out and are armed with those barrets and whatnot. My neighbors’s house was attacked during the night around Christmastime last years because someone hid in his lawn, so they just shot this normal person’s walls and door. My hubs went to walk the dog and just walked past a business and someone got killed, he had to hid between some cars along with a lot of people walking by.
This happens between the gangs, but more often than not, they take it to the streets. you can see it on the news. It makes me so sad becausse they are such a minority and most people just want to get to their workplaces and live life, you know?
So many people live from Tourism and this is not good for it. It got worse around 4 years ago.
The government wanted to attack the gangs like colombia did or something like that, but it is a bigger country,the bad guys have so many dollars and arms are gotten SO easily.
I used to be temted to try pot . Now I would never touch it because I do know that drugs kill and not only addicts, but because of what it takes to have it available, you know? Disgusting business.
Ok, to play devil’s advocate…so if we legalize drugs, and something like “bath salts” become legal…the people who go around eating ppl’s faces off will only be charged with assault, and not with drug use? Is that what this means?
I do think it’s funny that Brad thinks the war on drugs is going after impoverished ppl, and impoverished ppl do drugs to escape. There are plenty of poor ppl who don’t turn to drugs, and an even higher # of middle class and rich folks who DO use drugs. Trying to escape from the reality of one’s economic state isn’t the only reason ppl do drugs. My sister did drugs because she was molested as a child (and she continues to do them because she’s never sought therapy for the things that have happened to her). Ppl do drugs to escape horrible childhoods (which cross economic lines) and so on.
I’m sure Brad is right in that poor ppl suffer more *legal* ramifications for doing drugs…but…? To me the problem is getting ppl to want to stop taking drugs altogether. Eliminate the market for it and you eliminate the cartels and dealers. We as human beings need to take the responsibility to cut the demand off at the source. But unfortunately, that ain’t ever gonna happen.
What really pisses me off is how many ppl do weed because it’s “not a big deal.” Do you realize how many innocent folks in Mexico were decapitated and hung from telephone wires to get that weed to the U.S.?
Great post, valley miss.
But you know what, I think Brad was making exactly the same points you made. Only difference is he placed the onus for the victims of drugs on US drug polickes rather than the weed users.
I’m sorry…but he’s beginning to sound as bad as he looks.
Am I seeing things here?! In the 1st pic, he’s got gray hair all in his scraggly goatee, yet the hair on his head is highlighted blonde/dirty-blonde, & not a gray hair in sight. This does not look good @ all & if he’s honest w/himself, he needs to either let his gray hair on his head show, OR color the hair on his scraggly goatee…one or the other. This just does not look good, & I expect a “movie star” to look better than this.
The 2nd & 3rd (last) pics…his hair is a grease-pitt (sorry for the pun!). His hair is greasy & stringy. I hope these pics are from when he was doing a film…hopefully he was just playing a character…right?
And a blue (almost baby blue) western-themed suit….he’s even pairing it w/western boots…oh boy, it’s GOT to be a character…I see in the last pic someone’s standing near him w/camera equipment….oh thank God it’s for a movie & not real life.
My father had gray hair in his moustache and he shaved it off out of vanity. He alsohad gray hair on his sideburns, nothing else. He died at 89 yrs old with the same hair as he had at 40 yrs old and a few gray hairs. He was very fair, not a blond, tho.
Hmmm…that’s interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Jesus Christ, the man is 50 years old. He’s aging as all humans do. He’s still far more attractive than the average man. He’s aging pretty damn well. If you want to see bad aging look at Benicio Del Toro, Mickey Rourke, Leonardo Di Caprio, Val Kilmer, etc.
@Emma, I didn’t say Brad looked old and decrepit. I said his highlighted hair looked bad along w/a scraggly goatee that had gray in it. I said he should either let the gray grow in his own hair or color the goatee to match the hair on his head. I said I expected a movie star to look better than that. You are aware he’s a millionaire time & again….he could afford it.
And yes, I totally agree w/you…the stars you named….not looking so good.
@kimbob
Not saying Brad does not color his hair. but it is amazing that you don’t realize that men can have little grey in their hair and have grey in a beard. My boyfriend has grey in his beard and his hair only has a few strings of grey. Hard to even notice. This happens to most men.
Beyond pot, which is just a misdemeanor anyway, but coke, heroin, meth, on and on should not be decriminalized or legal. Look at what prescription drug use has done. Oxycontin, Vicodin, etc, drug addiction has become so rampant, destroying lives, with doctors overprescribing and pill mills popped up everywhere, that it had to be totally changed. Oversight and monitoring is very strong now and near impossible to doctor shop.
The war on drugs should most definitely continue as far as the drug rings importing massive quantities of drugs and the meth labs in our country. How we handle lower-level local dealers when caught and/or users should be looked at.
There is no such thing as a safe drug. weed included. It causes mental problems for people who are pre-disposed.
All drugs, including prescription, should be regulated rather than handed out over the counter.
And i am aware that weed can be used for medical purposes but guess what, so can heroine. ditto many other types of perfectly harmless things until someone decided to get high from them eg glue.
People should stop turning to drugs as the solution to their various problems. If someone is in medical need, it is easy to hand out something to help, but that can quickly turn to a dependency if not strictly controlled which leads to other things. Also some drugs, medical or otherwise are highly addictive even if used in minute quantities.
It’s a combination of things that need to be done to irradicate the problem of drugs but ultimately it should boil down to prevention rather than cure and that starts with education and stiff penalties to the users who will in turn drop demand and hopefully domino effect to the producers.
It’s not something that is going to happen overnight. It took ceneturies to take hold, it will take at least half of that time to rectify. We are still fighting tobacco and alcohol dependency, and we have taken great strides in that but it has taken a good 30yrs, and even though it doesn’t appear to be working, it is. Smoking and drinking used to be a given, the mark of an enlightened sophisticated person. Now we know better and fewer people do it.
“almost impossible to doctor shop”… Seriously!! I guess that is why I see 10 -15 people a day who are addicted to pain meds due to Doctor shopping!
those drug lords already have enough power and money they cuold easily switch to different fields of income. look at biker gangs like the Hells Angels they make money with stocks and other legal business.
the problem is not drugs its humans, just like with every other problem.
those people are ruthless, they are outside of the law, thats the problem. thats partly due to growing up in poverty but even when you could abolish poverty, some people always want more and will do literally anything to get it. you just cant get that rich and powerful with a regular job. money is actually not the biggest power, their biggest power is fear. those people will come to your house and do things to you and your family, thats the problem.
The war on drugs is a failed and racist war….in the US minorities and the poor disproportionately go to jail while the wealthy go to rehab and prescribed addiction. The monies get funneled into mafias,terrorist states, and a for profit jail complex, still year after year we are the biggest consumer of drugs far ahead of countries with lax laws… I don’t know if total legalization is a solution but what we are doing now is horrible.
Actually min, I’ve got a question for you.
Brad quotes statistics and stuff, but is the African American community being strictly the victims in this drug war? How is that happening when Hollywood celebrities themselves declare openly about their drug use? Why aren’t these celebrities being arrested if drugs are illegal in US? I dont live in US but I m curious.
They’re not the only victims. The war on drugs mainly targets minorities and poor people. The problem is that it perpetuates poverty, especially among minorities. About half of people in jail for drug offenses are there for marijuana, because it’s so prevalent. People of all races and all walks of life do it. But when they arrest poor people, it makes it next to impossible for them to get jobs. And unfortunately a disproportionate number of poor people in America are black
Those pictures first made me want to ask why Jeff Bridges is pretending to be Brad Pitt, but in any case he’s absolutely right on this topic. I usually find his political musings to be more intelligent than those of your average Hollywood high school dropout.
Pitt doesn’t make sense, does he have a point?!?
Just bitching that the war on drugs isn’t working, doesn’t make him some enlightened visionary, espeically as he offers no solution.
Drugs cost a society money, and only weighing the pros and cons of legalizing will reach a solution.
Hard drugs legalization will see increase activity as the price will go down. A portion of the drug price and the quantity available is in direct relation to the cost of law imprisonment/punishment – economic fact!
Have harsher sentences and ones that stick! and you will see the supply and demand decrease.
Pot is legal for medical reasons here in Canada, but legal or not, the biggest problem is battery.
If you smoke it and don’t contain it and it seeps into someone elses home it is the same as forcing wine or another mood altering chemical down someone’s throat against their will.
I’m all for legalization with strict penatities for battery. It is increasing in Canada, because of the stupidity of some pro-legalization people, who think being pro means smoking it by crowded bus stops, in the street, without containint it and so on.
The point is that legalized or not, the police would still have the cost of enforcement of punishment, albeit much less punishment as you wouldn’t get charged for possession just for battery. As it stands now if someone refuses to contain it, you can shoot them in the head and get away with self defense. Which is a problem that isn’t being addressed.
Have a tolerancly law like in Holland where it is tolerated as long as you don’t inflict it on others – and if you do you face stiff penalties. MOST people who smoke pot are considerate.
The cost of legalizing to a society would greatly reduce the loss in law enforcement with regards to pot but not remove it. For hard drugs, the medical cost and crime cost already is increasing, legalization will make it worst
I am not sure what to say about the topic so…
Brad looks good in these picture I like the latino or even Euro play boy type of look on him. Better than the one that he has in the airports for sure. The Councler movie is a movie that looks it is gonna be good.
I am looking forward for tomorrow. I hope he will be hot and elegant in it.
Agree with Brad that this subject needs more attention. No one needs a lifelong criminal record that prevents them from getting a job, serving years and years in jail, not being able to vote in some states and worse for pot possession while harming no one.
It is as if no lessons were were learned from the failure called Prohibition, it is time to legalize, regulate and tax drugs like alcohol and tabacco. Start with reforming the harsh pot laws. Use the taxes for free widely available rehabilitation among other things. Take the profit out of drugs. The drug culture has invaded every facet of legitimate businesses in the US. Time to be realistic and do something that actually works.
Tarantino said what he said 4 or 5 years ago right? And as far as I know, which is very little, LOL, Brad and Jennifer were both major potheads back in the day right? And Brad has never been arrested for pot violations has he? So I have no reason to doubt what he is saying now.
In sad nonrelated news, Russell Crowe and wife Danielle Spencer ‘split after nine years’, they have 2 small kids. Crowe has been working nonstop all over the globe apart from his family like a year but still a surprise to me. She seemed like a “lifer” but everyone has limits to what they can deal with.
I don’t think it’s as simple as legalize everything or nothing at all. I think the more elegant solution lies somewhere in between: legalize the ability to prescribe certain things, run state-controlled stores where they could be bought (ala alcohol in many states) for quality control and to avoid the sale to minors, and keep highly dangerous/lethal ones banned.
As a chronic drug user (albeit prescribed ones), I have to say it’s really quite arbitrary what the US legalizes and what it doesn’t. Xanax relaxes me far quicker and more potently than pot ever did from my college years, and Adderall is a bit like the kids meal version of coke. Regardless of anyone’s feeling on my using them, at least I have a doctor who monitors me and keeps my doses low enough so I don’t go the way of Dina Lohan.
For now. Wait until the DEA visits your doctor and suggests that he/she may want to change prescribing practices. Xanax loses effectiveness over time so doses have to be raised in any event. And it’s not pretty when the patient claims he’s lost his prescription or been robbed once too often and the doctor won’t refill early.
I agree with him.
The ‘war on drugs’ is like a dog chasing its tail…round and round we go.
Hi Diana I don’t have time to find the statistics this second but yeah the jails have always been disproportionately filled w/ African Americans for similar crimes. Here in NY we had a set of laws called the Rockerfeller Laws (some of which were dismantled) which were considered even by the people who wrote them to be some of the most unfair in the country an example of its discrimination a person found with an amount cocaine (higher cost at the time drug) would be punished less the a person with the same or less amounts of crack (at the time a drug prevalent in the AA community) sentences were mandated by law with no discretion given to judges.
As for celebs well you have the rap culture that grew up in the ghetto idolozing the street dealers who were the only ones with money….you also have the Hollywood elite for whom there is no consequence in drug use even if they are caught ala Lohan,Sheen etc.
Thanks min. Sad to see this discrimination existing in the most prosperous country of the world. I still don’t understand how the US media is quiet about the elite usage of pot, while punishing the poor for possessing marijuana.
Have a nice week.
I live in southern British Columbia and would like to see pot legalized in the United States and Canada because the b.c. bud that goes south of the border gets traded with cocaine or handguns since it’s not feasible for the organized crime lords in Canada to get paid in American dollars. I’m guessing that it’s too difficult to launder. Just my opinion, but I believe that there would be less lives ruined if pot were legalized in both countries.
wow – does he look burned out!
looks kind of like maybe he’s fibbing about not doing drugs anymore??
I like this guy enough and agree with what he is saying but I can’t take him seriously. I remember when he told Bill Maher he doesn’t smoke anymore because he has kids then Quentin Tarantino went on Howard Stern like two days later and told a story about getting high with Brad. Then there was that interview where the interviewer mentioned seeing him smoking a cigarette earlier and he got nervous about Angelina hearing about it. This was a few years ago though so maybe he doesn’t smoke anymore.
I completely agree that this subject should be more of a discussion in our country. My husband and I get into debates on this subject once in a while. I believe in legalization while my husband who is a former police officer obviously believes in legislation and criminalization. It gets tricky at times when you are talking about children being offered drugs. To me this is an important subject because of the drug cartels, etc. that rule the borders. It is very scary and dangerous and in some areas of the country the drug trade is ruining communities but the subject really doesn’t get as much air time as other things. That’s what I don’t understand.
He’s absolutely right. It’s funny that when we stop stereotyping actors and start actually listening to what they say, they make a lot of sense. The war on drugs has been an excuse to provide for profit private prisons with a continued source of “customers”. It is also an excuse to dole out racism and prejudice. In New York, 90% of the stop and frisks are of black and hispanic men. Only 10% of those result in any arrest. Think about that, the other 80% of those people have now been demeaned and humiliated and are going to be expected to trust authorities and teachers and rules and laws… when they don’t feel any of those things have been fair to them. The drug war is a broken system that only puts money in the pockets of greedy fat cats and affects the poor and minorities disproportionately. It’s a friggin’ mess…and it’s about time we ended it.
pretentious ass
Welfare also holds people down. It represses them and keeping a portion of society down is good, I suppose, or why else would a government spent trillions on welfare when they could put that money to create jobs for those that collect.
People on welfare may disagree. They aren’t even aware that the dependency isn’t healthy for them and their families.
Wha kind of person feels good about themselves for collecting when they would feel better if they worked for it.
Work gives people a purpose. It makes them feel better when they provide themselves, instead of handouts.
The handouts become like drugs and these people eventually become represses and feel like they are less then others in society.
I work with children who tell me almost evryone in their family are on welfare. They too feel it’s an entitlement and if there no education or jobs in the future that they too can depend and expect these handouts.
Unless someone is disabled the rest should work for their own self growth, period.
The weird thing about welfare is that it supports those with several children, the more the better and these children become like their parents, dependent and slack in school.
We talk about not having jobs, yet the gov spends trillions on welfare when they should create jobs. Get rid of robbots who answer phones and hire these people to do those jobs. There’s plenty of work that needs to be done, yet gov rather give these handouts.
If a single person loses a job they can’t go on welfare, but if a single women has loads of kids, no man in the house, bingo, she gets what she wants…An example is Octomom, or whatever she’s called.
Brad is right about the repression to keep certain people in jail. It’s like slavery in a sense and those on welfare who think they are advancing, how can you.
You would feel better having a job…Maybe this recession is another way to keep the poor down, including middle class, so the richer can get richer…
I say, enough. Maybe we do need to change presidents and I don’t mean Romney either. I mean someone who is rational, who is willing to help people feel like humans and not paws of society.
Good job Brad. Next, you should bring up welfare for the healthy who keep poopping kids while others in society pay for it and gov keeps them repressed…
Trillions on welfare? Really? You must be one of those Faux News puppets. Trillions only if you count corporate welfare and defense welfare… but not even then. Get some facts on your side honey, you sound ignorant.
I love your name, Geniuos. It is simply spot on.
Ha. Same. There I was, thinking, “What a clever, ironic, deliberate misspelling” . . . and then I read the comment.
I’m glad that Brad is using his celebrity to focus on these issues. The war on drugs is a very complex one, with many opinions on both sides, but what is sorely missing is a good debate about it.
I live in a third world country south of the border that suffers the terrible side-effects of this whole issue. Local crime organizations have so much money that they can buy and control already weak and corrupt governments. There are drug-traffic related deaths daily. We have a higher death rate than Afghanistan at this point and we aren’t even technically at war.
Legalizing SOME drugs and TAXING them could be a solution. Look at cigarettes. I think smoking hasn’t increased because of the millions of dollars spent in informing and prevention. If a fraction of the money spent on the failed drug war were spent on educating the general public about the risks of different drug use, maybe it could make a difference. There are just too many “economic interests” in this war… from the drug lords to the illegal gun trade to the jail system in the US.
There are so many more anonymous losers in this war than the US public knows.
Sorry for the rant. In short… go Brad!
He really is easily led around by the nose isn’t he? He used to just morph his looks into whatever starlet his was currently f*cking. Maybe he should just stick to that. Legalizing drugs won’t free people from the shackles of addiction just the prisons we put them in. They remain in their own prison as they chase that next high. They also commit crimes to get the money to buy drugs. And how exactly is this supposed to work? Are we going to be able to buy some “organic” crack/meth at a Whole Foods? It’s not that we can grow our own cocaine and opium either and try to cut out the big bad drug cartels. It is controlled by violent well armed organizations. And they ain’t going to let every Tom,Dick and Harry get into the opium/coco leaf business either. They force people to work THEIR fields through terror. They set the market price. Drug cartels are like OPEC in setting worldwide oil prices. It’s not likely they will glut the market and drive prices down. And by legalizing it you will save them enormous profits by taking away the cost of smuggling it into our country. And if we tax it, the drug cartels will just past the cost on the customer. Maybe Brad needs to pick up a history book and read about the Opium Wars and how the rich (European men with “Lord” and “Sirs” as their title) sanctioned by their governments enslaved a majority of the Chinese through opium. And how the Chinese government “solved” the problem. Or maybe if history is not his cup of tea,read a USA News and Report mag. article detailing how the Biggest rise in drug addiction is not in ILLEGAL drugs anymore but in prescription drugs. Thats right people they’re already legal. Written by a doctor and paid for by an insurance policy. So where the hell is he getting that “poor and the down trodden” are shackled in this drug war? Addiction occurs in every economic bracket. It escapes no one.
I wonder how pro-legalization he will be if one of his kids starts buying and using? Or a pusher starts giving freebies?
I’m not a fan of his, but he’s right; the War on Drugs is a racist war. It was a racist war from the start. If it was clearly meant to go after drug offenders, than the proportion of those being detained wouldn’t be African-Americans and Latinos.
I love Brad for saying this but I would love it if he would get himself to Louisiana and help the people of Assumption Parish. I thought he and Angie loved New Orlaens?
Well Grace there is a long list of people from New Orleans. Brad and Angie are not on the list, but they are covering the lower 9th, and not to mention that Make It Right is branching out to build homes for Vets.
You should try one of the people on this list. Not sure how they are helping their home town
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_New_Orleans
Can you imagine if Batman, Superman or any of these superheroes existed? No matter if they spent their whole time fighting crime or helping in disasters, there would always be people complaining.
Now, Angelina and brad are only human, rich, but not on the levels of CEOs,etc. And they already help out a lot, and even devote their personal time to support good causes, not only writing checks or partying at charity events.
And still they get flak because they do not do this or that. Hello, they are not the only ones who can help. I Think they already do more than their fair share. Many do nothing and noone says anything about them.
Seriously. He is saying what lots of people want to hear. This man is talking out of his @$$!!! I really hate bringing more politics up, but if he is so adamant in criticizing the war on drugs, he should withdrawal his support for Obama!!!! The president, along with Attorney general Eric Holder, approved the smuggling of American weapons into Mexico for the Mexican drug cartels (operation fast and furious–google it), plus he continues to support the DEA shutting down legit pot dispensaries. And it looks like he still partakes in the toking and even doping as well. What an idiot!!!
The war on drugs is a failure. This is completely new information. My drug addicted cousin is constantly ranting about the war on drugs -rolling my eyes-
… To add what I said, I have to agree with most posters above in that he parrots what other people say. Obama needs to focus on issues like this since it affects a large amount of the American population. But Brad’s opinion is his own, and at least he is knowledgable about a subject that a lot of high profile people would not talk about.
… To add what I said, I have to agree with most posters above in that he does parrot what other people say. It seems he lets others dictate his opinions sometimes, aka Angie Obama needs to focus on issues like this since it affects a large amount of the American population. But Brad’s opinion is his own, and at least he is knowledgable about a subject that a lot of high profile people would not talk about.
Brad Pitt is spot on when he says people do drugs to escape, and that the only way to end the war on drugs is to take the profit out of it. We should create high security “drug farms”, not too spartan but with access to outdoors and exercise etc, entirely separately for each gender, out in the country somewhere, far from cities, something like detention camps, voluntary and involuntary admission, where drugs, food and accommodation are free, but the people are contained and cannot leave once admitted until they’ve been drug-free for at least a year if electing the option of rehab and occupational therapy, in which case they’d transfer to a totally separate part of the establishment. The detention center warders would have to be specially trained also, to deal with drug-related violence.
you know what else has been a failure? those freaking chanel ads. just say no.
Well, with Romney in the White House none of this will ever happen. Sad.
Portugal decriminalized all drugs over ten years ago. It has been a sucess. So it’s not as if we don’t have any examples on this to compare.
^^This! So true!
I don’t know if this has been mentioned already, as I didn’t read through all of the comments, but the medical industry also benefits from the drug prohibition because it maintains their monopoly.
All medicine comes from drugs, that’s why it is so expensive, because of prohibition. And yes, organize crime benefits from this too.
Have we learned nothing from the alcohol prohibition and the likes of Al Capone?