10.00.00

MUSIC

Titles:

DARTMOUTH FILMS PRESENTS

A film by

Rachel Seifert

10.00.05

10.00.11

10.00.20

WOMAN

Yeah, I take cocaine, not regularly but every now and then.

10.00.23

MAN

I probably take a couple of grams most weekends.

10.00.24

WOMAN

I started it when I was at university.

10.00.25

10.00.27

MAN

I don’t really know why I started. I suppose…

WOMEN

It makes people feel good, you know

10.00.28

WOMAN

That’s why I take it

Caption:

There are over 11 million Western consumers of cocaine.

Caption:

It is estimated that nearly 90% of these are casual users.

10.00.33

10.00.36

Music

Name Super:

Evo Morales

President of Bolivia

10.00.49

10.00.54

EVO MORALES Spanish with subtitles

The origin of the cocaine market is the demand but that's not just our responsibility, but also that of the international community,

Name Super:

César Gaviria

President of Colombia 1990-1994

10.01.03

10.01.11

CESAR GAVIRIA

The US and Europe are not doing enough. You cannot put all the responsibility on us. We are doing an extraordinary sacrifice. You need to look at the policy you have in place is right.

Name Super:

Rafael Correa

President of Ecuador

10:01:21

10.01.25

10.01.31

RAFAEL CORREA Spanish with subtitles

The fight against drugs, which we also believe in, which degrades the human condition and causes so many problems, but which can't be solved by mere repression.

WOMAN

It’s not what you get told. I mean, we just get told that it’s bad for you.

10.01.34

MAN

It’s bit of a good fun. We get it pretty much everywhere in London

10.01.36

WOMAN

Some people take it because it makes them feel good.

10.01.39

MAN

I used to take it. That was my choice.

Name Super:

Mike Trace

UK Deputy Drugs Czar 1997-2001

10.01.42

10.01.43

10.02.08

10.02.09

10.02.10

10.02.11

10.02.12

MIKE TRACE

As long as there is demand for the use of cocaine, whether it be in the USA, Europe or other parts of the world, then it will be produced and it will supply the market.

For the casual western recreational user of cocaine, I think you should need to confront the fact that the supply chain of your ah, preferred commodity, is a very dirty supply chain, and that has human, financial and social costs.

WOMEN

It’s like drinking and smoking isn’t it?

MAN

I don’t really like alcohol and cigarettes

WOMEN

It’s sociable

WOMAN

And as much as you can take

MAN

I’m only harming myself. Aren’t I?

Film Title:

COCAINE UNWRAPPED

10.02.17

Caption:

BALTIMORE, USA

10.02.34

Music

Caption:

The USA's war on drugs was first declared by President Nixon in 1971

10.02.56

Name Super:

Major Neill Franklin Maryland State Police (retired)

10.03.08

10.03.21

NEILL FRANKLIN

It used to be fun around here, back in the sixties. Now er, at night time, you don’t even want to walk the streets, and even sometimes during the day time you don’t walk the streets here. Reservoir hill is the community that I grew up in. And, back when in that time, in the sixties, and even the early seventies, every home was occupied.

10.03.33

This is Brookfield. On that corner, it used to be Brookfield pharmacy, and these – these two blocks, on both sides of the street right here, were filled with – booming with business. They're now vacant lots. Boarded up homes now, each and every one of these homes used to be occupied.

10.03.58

Baltimore was a very booming town, over a million people. Blue collar jobs, when the docks steel mills and so on. But then, industry started to suffer, and the jobs started to go away. Many – heads of these households, had to er, find a way to bring money in. And, for many of these folks, the hustle was – illegal drug dealing.

10.04.34

The operations that er, you see out here. A typical scenario is – car pulls down the street drives, down the street very slow, which is an indication that they're looking for something to buy. Someone will approach the car. That person, typically, will not have the drugs on them, but they will take the money, and then direct the car, to another er, person, maybe a short distance away. Another way is that you’ll see a large number of people, er standing on a particular corner, or in an area. The numbers will slowly begin to increase, as you might see two or three at first.

10.05.12

And when the numbers get up to probably somewhere between ten and twenty, then the person selling the drugs will – what we would say, open shop. So they’d go down an alley, somewhere out of sight, and everyone will follow. They will line up. And within a matter of seconds, a minute, they will sell drugs to about twenty people. Just like that. Just that quick.

10.05.37

And they’ll repeat it over and over again. And it’s – it’s much more efficient and less chance of them getting caught, by the police. Baltimore is - has had a very, er large drug problem for many decades, but it wasn’t always that way here in Baltimore, and I think um, that changed when the law enforcement er, and the Nixon administration, launched the war on drugs, and er, Baltimore changed.

10.06.08

And I’ve been er, in law enforcement now for over thirty three years. I think I’ve got a very good grasp of what's going on out here in the streets, and what needs to change. From the law enforcement perspective, we need to change our policies – quick.

Caption:

TUMACO, COLOMBIA

10.06.30

Music

Caption:

The majority of the world's cocaine is produced from coca leaf grown in Colombia

10.06.41

Name Super:

General Francisco Patiño Fonseca

Director, Anti-Narcotics Police 2009-2010

10.06.51

10.07.07

FRANCISCO PATIÑO FONSECA Spanish with subtitles

All of the 147,000 people from the police force in Colombia are working in the fight against drugs. With our fleet of helicopters and aeroplanes, we are destroying the laboratories and factories that produce cocaine in different parts of the country. Other areas that are important are the eradication of illegal farms.

Name Super:

José Castro Lieutenant, Anti-Narcotics Police

10.07.27

10.07.32

JOSE CASTRO Spanish with subtitles

In the north of Tumaco, there's a lot of coca. This is a field of 12-13 hectares. It's coca plant that's already in full production. The police are there to provide security when going to the coca plantations to destroy them.

Caption:

In 2000, the Colombian government, with the support of the USA, launched the military initiative Plan Colombia, aimed at curbing drug trafficking and combating guerrilla insurgency

10.07.50

10.07.53

Music

Name Super:

Francisco Santos Vice-President of Colombia 2002-2010

10.08.06

10.08.16

FRANCISCO SANTOS

The problem of – of drugs in Colombia, have different characteristics from anywhere of in the world. And it’s international security issue. So our policy is – very aggressive against all elements of drug trafficking. One of the elements is eradication. Eradication of crops. Air spraying, which was er the basic element of reduction of production.

10.08.35

And, but in two thousand five, we started the process of manual eradication. It’s more effective but you need the combination of both. Of air spraying in many areas where – it’s very difficult. And manual eradication where – where there is more territorial control.

Subtitles:

10.08.54

JOSE CASTRO Spanish with subtitles

The farmers mix it up with yucca and plantain, as you can see here, and the coca leaves are mixed up with all these different crops. With manual eradication, we can make sure we only tackle coca plants.

Caption:

The rural province of Nariño is the current focus for forced coca eradication using both aerial spray fumigation and manual eradication

10.09.31

Name Super:

Marίa Francisca Farmer

10.10.01

10.10.11

MARIA Spanish with subtitles

Everything dies. Everything in the poison's path just dies. The plants that didn’t get sprayed a lot survived, but the plants hit by the poison are all dead. Look at it, where it fell it's all destroyed. We were working over there the day it got fumigated. We were cleaning the yuca that was there. They sprayed the poison there and there. Everything that was sprayed dies. There I had about 50 papaya plants, that were all bearing fruit, and now this is all that's left. We had some orange trees, and some banana, chocolate and yucca.

Music

Name Super:

Gustavo Girón Bishop of Tumaco

10.11.34

10.11.49

GUSTAVO GIRON Spanish with subtitles

In Tumaco, about 88% of the population is black. It is a region that encompasses a marginalised area of Colombia. This has meant that the region's economy has long been held back. We know that these fumigations are bad for the region. They kill and damage all of the traditional crops we have. And this has brought great poverty to the countryside.

Name Super:

Antonio Navarro Wolf

Governor of Nariño

10.12.19

10.11.22

ANTONIO NAVARRO WOLF Spanish with subtitles

The fundamental problem is that it's indiscriminate. So, to destroy the illegal crops, fumigation also kills the legal ones.

10.12.36

MARIA Spanish with subtitles

It hurt me a lot, the damage they did to us because I'm a woman who has struggled. I come here to work on my own as I always do. I have three kids and I don’t have any support. And this is hard because from here until we plant again, and harvest again is hard. It's hard because we would come and work out here in the baking sun, we come here working, cleaning and planting until late in the day. And then the next day, it was just like this, fumigated.

10.13.17

Music

10.13.21

MARIA Spanish with subtitles

Nobody knows who's going to take responsibility for this.

Name Super:

Piedad Córdoba Opposition Senator (1994-2010)

10.13.29

10.13.33

PIEDAD CORDOBA Spanish with subtitles

The whole anti-drug trafficking strategy is deadly for the environment, and deadly for people caught in the line of fumigation. With products that are not used in other countries.

10.13.42

Music

Name Super:

Dr. Maricela Carabali

Medical Doctor

10.13.49

10.13.51

MARICELA CARABALI Spanish with subtitles

People working in farms who have been exposed to the fumigation, present skin problems which can be very serious. To have fumigated near the rivers has contaminated the water supply and we've had lots of cases of diarrhoea and intestinal problems. There are respiratory problems amongst children, as well as problems with pregnant women having miscarriages and foetus malformations. But the government doesn’t pay attention to it because the policy is to eradicate coca farms.

10.14.28

Music

10.14.35

GUSTAVO GIRON Spanish with subtitles

The fumigations also cause displacements because farmers, when they can no longer grow crops, have to leave for the cities in order to live and find alternative livelihoods.

Caption:

The eradication of crops contributes to Colombia's internal displacement of over 5 million people

10.14.52

Caption:

Sanho Tree Institute of Policy Studies (USA)

10.14.59

10.15.08

SANHO TREE

There are so many unintended consequences. And for a country that’s been at civil war for four and a half decades, our drug policy has been causing a lot of these peasant farmers, to become alienated from the state.

10.15.13

Music

Name Super:

César Gaviria President of Colombia 1990-1994

10.15.20

10.15.23

CESAR GAVIRIA

The sacrifice Colombia does from fighting drugs, is inordinate. The social damage is terrible. And most of the time, destroying the life of people who are not criminals, who are just trying to survive.

Caption:

The coca leaf was declared illegal by the United Nations in 1961

10.15.40

(Chat).

Caption:

UN DRUGS CONFERENCE, VIENNA 2009

10.15.49

10.15.55

WOMAN

Now it is my pleasure to call on his Excellency, Don Juan Evo Morales Aymer, President of the Republic of Bolivia.

10.16.08

EVO MORALES Spanish with subtitles

I want to clearly say to all of you today, in front of the whole world, that this is the coca leaf, it is not cocaine. This coca leaf is part of our culture. This coca leaf is not a drug.

Caption:

BOLIVIA

10.16.34

Music

Name Super:

Evo Morales President of Bolivia

10.16.43

10.16.52

EVO MORALES Spanish with subtitles

The coca leaf is more than 5000 years old. Cocaine is a white powder but the coca leaf in its natural state is not harmful to human health.

Name Super:

Hipólito Bustamante

Coca Farmer

10.17.08

10.17.17

HIPOLITO Spanish with subtitles

I’ve live here since I was a child… and my parents grew coca here. Coca is like our mother and father.

Sometimes we sell it in Shinahota, sometimes we trade it for potatoes.

Caption:

Until President Morales was elected in 2005, the Bolivian government, supported by the USA, used forced eradication of illegal coca crops

10.17.49

Name Super:

Felipe Cáceres Vice-Minister for Social Affairs

10.18.00

10.18.06

FELIPE CACERES Spanish with subtitles

In the past, the fight against drugs targeted coca leaf in its natural state and coca leaf farmers.

Name Super:

Kathryn Ledebur

Director, Andean Information Network

10.18.15

10.18.21

KATHRYN LEDEBUR

At the peak of forced eradication, with the coca eradication, became very, very violent. And with the passage of this, and with the shift of the use of the armed forces as the key eradication force, and what there was, was troops coming on forcibly to their land, and ripping out every bit of the family’s coca leaf.

10.18.35

FELIPE CACERES Spanish with subtitles

There was violence and confrontations, and most of all the farmers' human rights were abused.

10.18.50

HIPOLITO Quechuan with English subtitles

We suffered greatly and we couldn't plant coca. Because of our fight with the army. All of the coca unions united against this oppression. The soldiers would come and shoot us and we suffered a lot of casualties. I can tell you we suffered a lot. They kicked me and I was beaten with stones. There is no way we would have left our coca. It’s what we lived from…and how I provided for myself and my children.

10.19.47

Music

10.19.50

HIPOLITO Quechuan with English subtitles

We have suffered so much.

Caption:

In Bolivia today, it is legal for farmers to grow a limited amount of coca for traditional consumption

10.20.07

10.20.15

Music

10.20.35

FELIPE CACERES Spanish with subtitles

Bolivia's new constitution for the first time recognises coca in its natural state as Bolivian cultural heritage. Now there is no violence, no confrontations, no human rights abuses.

10.20.56

EVO MORALES Spanish with subtitles

It's not fair that because coca can be diverted to make cocaine, that the coca leaf can be penalised.

Name Super:

Lucio Mendoza Coca Farmer

10.21.35

10.21.51

LUCIO MENDOZA Spanish with subtitles

Right now we are harvesting because the coca is ripe. When mature the leaves are pure dark green, so now we have to harvest every 3 to 4 months. Coca has been produced here for many years, since the Incas. It is a great symbol of our identity. Here, coca is produced not for illegal purposes but for legal ones. We don’t know what cocaine is or how to make it. Ask my grandfather over there, "What is cocaine?" he will answer, "I don't know",

What effects does it have? We don’t know and don’t want to know.

10.22.42

EVO MORALES Spanish with subtitles

Coca leaf doesn’t cause addiction, and I've consumed a lot of it when I was working in agriculture.

10.22.54

FELIPE CACERES Spanish with subtitles

Coca leaf in its natural state is not a drug, it is not cocaine. You can't confuse sugar cane with alcohol, or you can't say that grapes are wine or that coffee is caffeine.

10.23.17

LUCIO MENDOZA Spanish with subtitles

Before, a decree would come directly from the government saying that you can't grow coca any more or that you have to eradicate the coca. Today it has changed a lot. Our comrade, Evo Morales, who is now our president, used to be a coca producer like us. And now they’ve passed the responsibility on to us to create social control.

Caption:

The Bolivian government has a policy of ‘social control’: working with farmers to reduce excess coca production.

10.23.47

Caption:

COCA GROWERS’ UNION, CHAPARE

10.23.53.

10.23.59

MAN Spanish with subtitles

The fight for the cato of coca has been a long one. Thanks to the elections, we elected our friend Evo Morales to government as president, so that he could help us.

Name Super:

Nicolaus Hansmann

Bolivian Attaché European Commission

10.24.15

10.24.19

NICOLAUS HANSMANN Spanish with subtitles

The European Commission doesn’t support the forced eradication or aerial fumigation of coca crops. The reduction in production of coca leaves has to be a joint effort with the participation of farming communities who live in these regions.

10.24.37

MAN Spanish with subtitles

Today, our government, our president, has agreed for 20,000 hectares to be distributed around different parts of the country.

10.24.49

NICOLAUS HANSMANN Spanish with subtitles

All the producers must affiliate with an organisation, and they cannot exceed the production of a cato, 1600 square metres, of coca.

10.25.06

FELIPE CACERES Spanish with subtitles

That's a third of a football pitch. But coca in excess of this must be eradicated. Our goals are very clear in this.

10.25.16

MAN Spanish with subtitles

Long live the coca grower unions. Long live Evo Morales. Long live coca!

Thanks comrades!

10.25.32

KATHRYN LEDEBUR

Taking advantage of the strength of the coca grower union structure has allowed them to reduce coca beyond the cato for each family. Er, in a peaceful negotiated way.

10.25.47

Music

10.26.00

WOMEN

I don’t really know much about it, no. I suppose I probably should do.

10.26.04

MAN

It’s quite successful with parties and. It’s sociable

10.26.10

WOMAN

It just seems that people who want to take it, take it.

Captions:

In London, a gram of cocaine sells for around £50.

A coca farmer in Colombia will get less than 50 pence of this.

10.26.23

10.26.25

Caption:

COLOMBIA

10.26.33

10.26.42

Music

Name Super:

Antonio Navarro Wolf

Governor of Nariño

10.27.45

10.26.49

ANTONIO NAVARRO WOLF Spanish with subtitles

All they do is to impose their authority. They impose it from the air using fumigation or impose it on land by manual forced eradication. The population are not involved…until the population decide to chance the situation, then we’re fighting a losing battle.

10.27.06

Music

Name Super:

Carlos

Coca Farmer

10.27.19

10.27.26

CARLOS Spanish with subtitles

At first I grew banana and yuca, but then the army came and fumigated, so from then on I started growing coca. Because if they're looking to fumigate coca, then fumigate coca, not banana trees or yuca. They have fumigated five times, but it's been replanted because that's what you live off out here. The government is wearing us farmers out, it's too much and we are tired now. They told the farmers they would give them 3 million pesos per hectare to tear out the coca and start growing banana, chocolate and yuca. So they come and say, "Come on, let's grow", and we say, "Okay, let's grow". Then they come and fumigate. Again they come with more projects saying "let's grow", but what good is that to us, we are wearing ourselves out.

10.28.29

I'm surviving because I still have some coca bushes and some banana trees over there, otherwise I would have joined the guerrillas by now. If they changed their attitude and stopped this fumigation then we'd get rid of this coca ourselves.

Caption:

Sanho Tree Institute of Policy Studies (USA)

10.28.53

10.29.05

SANHO TREE

The fumigation programme has not stopped. And – and they’re also now moving towards manual eradication, which, in many ways is as problematic, if not more so, than – than aerial fumigation. To see peasant farmers, being held back at gun point by the er national police, or other military while a team of a – several dozen men, will come through, and basically tear up their coca field. And so in the course of twenty minutes, their entire source of food security, is destroyed.

Name Super:

José Castro Lieutenant, Anti-Narcotics Police

10.29.32

10.29.44

JOSE CASTRO Spanish with subtitles

We're working hard, we're eradicating it and getting rid of it. This is one of the goals of our President. It will be very hard and cost a lot of human life, but it is something that we need to do.

Name Super:

General Francisco Patiño Fonseca

Director, Anti-Narcotics Police 2009-2010

10.29.51

10.29.57

10.30.04

10.30.27

FRANCISCO PATIÑO FONSECA Spanish with subtitles

We are not just a force of repression, but there is also significant social work done in the Colombian government, for example in dealing with illegal

ANTONIO NAVARRO WOLF Spanish with subtitles

I think the way they are trying to solve the problem isn’t adequate. Replanting is faster than eradication. People cultivate it and when it gets fumigated they just move to another bit of land and repeat the operation. They don’t have any alternative that gives them the same income as coca.

SANHO TREE

We never got with why these peasant farmers continuo to grow these crops year after year, and that has much more to be with historical abandon by the state, lack of economical activities, lack of export infrastructure, getting crops to markets, that sort of things, and we responded basically we a big stick approach when we fumigate and eradicate these crops without giving them viable alternatives.

Caption:

Over $6 billion of US funds have been spent on Plan Colombia, but Colombia is still producing the majority of the world's cocaine.

10.30.53

10.31.00

Music

Name Super:

Francisco Santos Vice-President of Colombia 2002-2010

10.31.08

10.31.17

FRANCISCO SANTOS

We certainly thought that we would see better results in terms of the amount of cocaine that was being sent. But for Colombia, that situation is dramatically different, and has improved immensely in terms of security in many of those areas, in terms of the capability of citizens to live, to work, to live normally, and – and in that sense, it has been a success for us. But, the incentives of the demand, that has grown so dramatically, especially in western Europe, er, has kept the price high, and has undermined the efforts that we are doing here.

10.31.45

Music

Name Super:

Mike Trace

Chairman International Drug Policy Consortium

10.31.49

10.31.57

MIKE TRACE

I think the challenge for Colombia now that it has made some progress in improving the security situation but little progress in reducing the flow of cocaine, is social and economic development, of people who live in the poor and remote areas. What they have to let go of, is the idea that if they keep pouring more money into military, and more money into the police, then they will solve the drug problem.

Name Super:

César Gaviria President of Colombia 1990-1994

10.32.10

10.32.20

CESAR GAVIRIA

The flow of drugs to, to Europe, or to the US, or to all of Latin American countries, will keep untouched, and will keep flowing, and I think we need to, to deal with the policy that is not so harmful to society.

Caption:

BOLIVIA

10.32.29

Music

Poster’s subtitles:

"We want a drug free Bolivia for a good life"

10.32.38

Caption:

In the most comprehensive study on the coca leaf, the World Health Organisation concluded that in its natural form it is not harmful to human health

10.32.47

Caption:

Felipe Cáceres Vice-Minister for Social Affairs

10.33.03

10.33.14

FELIPE CACERES Spanish with subtitles

Our government's position, rather than leading to confrontation, has consistently been that the solution to the drug problem should never involve the use of bullets, tanks and machine guns. It is a matter of dialogue, collaboration and respecting human rights.

Caption:

Kathryn Ledebur

Director, Andean Information Network

10.33.25

10.33.30

KATHRYN LEDEBUR

This improved quality of life for the families, although they still live in extreme poverty, has allowed them to do something that they really were unable to do successfully in the past. And that is - try alternative crops. Try alternative strategies for income to augment their subsistence income from the coca.

10.33.45

Music

Caption:

Rimer Agreda Mayor of Shinahota

10.33.54

10.34.03

RIMER AGREDA Spanish with subtitles

With the government and the various state authorities, the idea is to diversify, to begin growing and producing products or to work in other agricultural areas which would also be a source of income for families. Certain products like palm hearts, bananas, citrus fruits, and also livestock.

Name Caption:

Lucio Mendoza Coca Farmer

10.34.31

10.34.37

LUCIO MENDOZA Spanish with subtitles

Coca is an essential product for us at the moment. Of all our activities, coca makes up 60%, coffee makes up 30%, and the rest is citrus fruits and other products. So that's what produces money in order to live, to take to markets and sell.

Caption:

In addition to encouraging alternative crops, the Bolivian Government is developing new markets for coca:

in tea, flour, drinks and cosmetic products.

10.34.57

10.35.09

RIMER AGREDA Spanish with subtitles

At present, an entire industry is being developed, coca tea, coca syrups and coca wines in all the places that coca is grown. Not simply to produce without caring what the market it, but looking to see what kind of markets might exist.

Caption:

WINDSOR TEA FACTORY (HANSA LTD) LA PAZ

10.35.39

Name Super:

Ricardo Hegedus Operations Manager Windsor Tea

10.35.43

10.35.44

RICARDO HEGEDUS Spanish with subtitles

The processing begins here. This is the raw material that we use: coca leaves. We control 60% of the coca tea market in Bolivia. The coca leaf is very good for revitalising the body and for aiding digestion. It is an excellent anti-oxidant, like green tea and other similar products. Hansa Limited works according to a policy of fair trade, which is a great way to benefit the producer, in terms of poverty and drugs trafficking, because we are paying the producer more than drug trafficking does. The UN Vienna Convention limits the export of coca tea. Coca tea has a huge potential international market and we should promote the production and exportation of this natural product.

Name Super:

Evo Morales President of Bolivia

10.37.07

10.37.13

EVO MORALES Spanish with subtitles

That's our policy, to produce coca for traditional use and for the legal market. Our fight is with the diversion of the coca leaf to make something illegal.

10.37.20

KATHRYN LEDEBUR

Will drugs traffickers perceive this as a void that they will try to take advantage of? Quite probably. The Bolivian government now is working very, very hard, to strengthen the work in the nation’s borders.

10.37.33

Music

10.37.42

SOLDIER

Spanish with subtitles

This is the factory.

Caption:

Bolivia's policy of ‘Coca Yes, Cocaine No’ means that they target cocaine production instead of coca farmers

10.38.05

Name Super:

Major Julio Velásquez

Anti-Narcotics Police

10.38.13

10.38.27

JULIO VELASQUEZ

Spanish with subtitles

This is unused coca that was going to be put into the tank. They were just spreading it out, to mix it up with petrol and cement. On average, we find 8 to 10 factories a day. The coca is mixed with a little bit of petrol, they mix it with cement, and then they start mixing it as if it was building material. And that's how the drug is taken out, and that's the drug. This is how the drug solution turns out. Roughly 800 grams can be made from this. Nearly a kilo. Now we destroy it.

10.39.20

Music

10.39.39

Music

10.39.53

KATHRYN LEDEBUR

I think that the Morales system is an important model. It’s not perfect. It has flaws. But I think that it does have some key elements that can be used in other countries, and that is, a focus on limiting coca, but with alternatives already in place, as opposed to a forced eradication.

Subtitles:

10.40.13

FELIPE CACERES Spanish with subtitles

We all know that excess coca contributes to the legal problem. We are fully aware of that, but how do we fight that? By helping coca growing families, who do so for economic reasons, to improve their living conditions and alleviate their poverty.

10.40.34

MAN

I think the west should acknowledge that absolute ban on all forms of plants associated with the western drug problem, is not a sustainable long term solution.

Name Super:

Mike Trace

Chairman International Drug Policy Consortium

10.40.43

10.40.50

MIKE TRACE

Bolivia has made it very clear that it’s not in favour of cocaine production. It’s not in favour of er, an increase in cocaine trafficking, and it’s their sovereign right that we, as the international community, should be finding ways to live with, rather than trying to force Bolivian elected politicians, to live with our fifty year old international system.

10.41.02

EVO MORALES Spanish with subtitles

With the USA, it will always be difficult. We're small, but that doesn’t mean we can be ordered about, blackmailed and have policies imposed on us. Every region, every country, every nation has the right to adopt economic measures that seem best for their country.

10.41.24

Music

10.41.35

WOMAN

Drugs won’t give you a lot of things on.

10.41.38

MAN

I take it because it makes me feel good

10.41.40

WOMAN

It’s sociable and allows me to have fun and to stay up all night.

10.41.45

MAN

I take it most weekends. It’s an instant release

10.41.46

WOMAN

II take it because I like it and that’s why people do it.

Caption:

In Barcelona, a gram of cocaine sells for around €60

A dealer on the streets of Mexico will get less than €5 of this

10.41.51

10.41.53

Caption:

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, MÉXICO

10.41.58

10.42.01

Music

10.42.28

MAN (LUIS) Spanish with subtitles

Yes, I can see the Federal Police patrols.

10.42.37

MAN Spanish with subtitles

The man in the house there will let you through.

10.42.44

MAN Spanish with subtitles

There are the bodies. Let me just drive around.

10.42.50

Music

10.43.02

MAN Spanish with subtitles

Until then it has been quite calm today, with nothing since this morning.

10.43.17

At what time was it?

10.43.33

MAN Spanish with subtitles

I heard they just came in and "bang", then disappeared.

10.43.43

MAN Spanish with subtitles

That's it, let's go.

Caption:

Over 37,000 people have been killed in México since President Calderón declared a war on drug trafficking in 2006

10.43.48

Name Super:

Luis Hinojos Journalist

10.44.06

10.44.15

LUIS Spanish with subtitles

Drug trafficking is a problem that has existed in Ciudad Juárez for many years because it is a strategic point for exporting drugs from Mexico to the USA. And this is why it is subject to the present war between the drug cartels. Juárez is now one of the most dangerous cities in the world to be a journalist. There are days when we in the media report up to 20 executions. In Juárez, an execution in a public place, in the street or just anywhere is becoming a part of people's everyday way of life. Every parent worries about coming home alive, being the innocent victim of a stray bullet, an execution or a violent gun battle.

Caption:

The US has given over $1.5 billion in support of Mexico's war on drug trafficking,

The majority of which is spent on the Mexican army and federal police.

10.45.14

Music

Name Super:

Jorge Carrasco Journalist

10.45.38

10.45.50

JORGE CARRASCO Spanish with subtitles

Felipe Calderón came to power with a significant crisis of legitimacy, that is, almost half of the population was opposed to his election. So he makes the issue of security, in particular the issue of fighting drug trafficking, the key policy of his term.

Name Super:

Eduardo Medina Mora

Attorney General 2006-2009

10.46.09

10.46.14

MEDINA MORA Spanish with subtitles

The main objective of President Calderón's policies is to recover for the Mexican people, security and peace for all families and communities. To do this we are deploying the Federal Police with the support of the Mexican Army. What is very clear to me is that we are going the right way and on the right path to achieve our objective.

Name Super:

‘Antonio’

Former Gang Member

10.46.43

10.46.58

ANTONIO Spanish with subtitles

Things have changed drastically over the past two or three years. Children are getting really used to seeing the military police, it's so normal to them. You can see how the violence has surged over the past few years. We could never have imagined the extent to which people, children have been desensitised. A child will come up to you and say "Someone's been killed," as if saying the Mexican football team has won. In fact that would be more surprising to them than hearing about a death.

10.47.25

LUIS Spanish with subtitles

Seeing military convoys is part of everyday life. When the army arrived, people hoped that they would cone and fight organised crime and bring down the number of executions and the crime levels. But as a result of the soldiers' arrival, there has been an exponential increase in the number of executions. They have damaged society even more, and the saddest thing is that we have lost the faith and hope that the population had in the military.

10.48.10

Music

10.48.15

JORGE CARRASCO Spanish with subtitles

It went from being a problem of rival gangs, to being a problem in which the state had to fall back on its last resort, the army. It's true that it is the only institution with deployable capacity, but it's also true that the army is not trained in civil law enforcement. And now we are facing another problem, which is human rights abuses that have significantly increased in the last three years.

Name Super:

Gustavo de la Rosa

Human Rights Ombudsman

State of Chihuahua

10.49.01

10.49.08

GUSTAVO DE LA ROSA HICKERSON Spanish with subtitles

People in Juárez are very scared because the military have become a third team in this war, creating violence, fear and anxiety in the population. The military have established torture as a method of investigation. They have broken into hundreds, if not thousands, of homes without warrants. They have stopped and detained thousands of people illegally without arrest warrants and have tortured them. In some cases people have been murdered. In some case people have been made to disappear.

10.49.46

Music

Name Super:

Carlos Navarrete Opposition Senator

10.49.52

10.49.57

CARLOS NAVARRETE Spanish with subtitles

The cartels, with their many billions of dollars in profit, have managed to corrupt the city, state and federal police. If the government of Mexico does not act now to close ranks against corruption, then the cartels will succeed in their goal of capturing the government and controlling parts of the country.

Caption:

Sanho Tree

Institute of Policy Studies (USA)

10.50.28

10.50.33

SANHO TREE

What are the people fighting over? They are fighting over minimally processed agriculture commodities that ought to cost pennies a dose and it is because of our war on drugs and our attack on the supply, our interdiction, that make these things so incredibly valuable.

Captions:

The profits of the Mexican drug cartels are thought to be worth almost $40 billion a year

In Mexico, a fifth of the population live on less than $2 a day

10.50.46

10.50.49

10.51.04

LUIS Spanish with subtitles

The present situation that Juárez is facing is worrying. There are people living in extreme poverty. Youngsters who have not had opportunities for care from childhood fall into drugs, crime and gangs.

10.51.27

Music

Name Super:

‘Xavi’

Former Drug Dealer

10.51.33

10.51.37

XAVI Spanish with subtitles

I left home at 14. Before I sold drugs, I went to school. I know why people do it because I did it too, I know it's not like they say it is on the TV. I had friends who only did it because they didn’t have work and had three kids with nothing to eat. They didn’t want to do it, but someone comes to you and offers you money, and for any number of reasons, like they didn’t have any education, there weren't any jobs, and that's the only work they can get. I stopped selling because things went from bad to worse and I could see what was going to happen to me, because I didn’t want to be 19 and already buried in my grave.

10.52.38

LUIS Spanish with subtitles

Here we are in the area of the mass graves where the bodies of those who have died and not been identified are buried. There's an average of 10 to 12 executions a day. And the most tragic thing about this is that the victims are mostly young people, on average between the ages of 15 to 23 years old.

10.53.18

XAVI Spanish with subtitles

It generates a kind of paranoia so that you're never at ease. It's a restlessness so that you're looking over your shoulder the whole time and watching your back, it becomes a way of life. Name me someone who hasn’t seen an execution here in Ciudad Juárez. Seeing someone pleading for their life, it's something that touches your heart. I couldn't look, I'm not so cold-blooded. When they were going to cut him with chainsaws, they chopped off his arms and legs and killed him.

10.53.57

XAVI Spanish with subtitles

If it continues like this, Juárez will become a ghost town.

10.54.05

LUIS Spanish with subtitles

In this area are the new graves that have been dug, ready for the new unidentified bodies. As President Calderón has announced, many more will die in this fight against drug trafficking. I suppose that the authorities are prepared for the next wave of executions to continue in Juárez and the rest of the country.

10.54.30

Music

Caption:

Sanho Tree Institute of Policy Studies (USA)

10.54.36

SANHO TREE

I think had president Calderón not gotten involved to begin with, and let them solve their turf battle, through their own ways, which would have been violent, but it would have been short. They would have gotten it over with. And gone back to the quiet business of drug dealing. So unless you believe that you're going to defeat them, and eliminate them somehow, er, what president Calderón has been doing is exacerbating the problem.

10.55.00

MIKE TRACE

There is too much profit there, we won’t eradicate it. We can engage in an arms race with drug dealers as much as you like. If you’re doing that, what you’re doing is you’re creating the circumstances where the most violent and the most well armed drug dealers are the ones who prevail. So we have to mould the market in such a way, that the terrible gang warfare and violence and corruption is less viable over a number of years.

10.55.24

JORGE CARRASCO Spanish with subtitles

I think that the strategy has proven to be a failure. From what we've seen, the death toll, no society can support such high levels of violence without it affecting them. The question here is whether there is another way to confront drug trafficking.

10.55.43

Music

10.55.59

WOMEN

It’s looked on by society as a bad thing, but actually everyone I know has at least tried it.

10.56.04

MAN

I take it regularly. Yes. But I can take it or leave it.

10.56.06

WOMAN

Some friends get addicted and do get into all sort of trouble. And they should definitely begin help.

10.56.12

MAN

Most people I know are casual users who take it occasionally and carry…

10.56.15

WOMAN

I know a lot of people who take it who are, you know, respectable members of society and who have professional jobs.

Caption:

In New York, a gram of cocaine sells for around $75

A drug mule in Ecuador will get less than $3 of this

10:56:26

Caption:

QUITO, ECUADOR

10.56.36

Music

Caption:

On the border with Colombia, Ecuador is a transit country for drugs being taken from South America to the USA

10.56.58

Name Super:

Analia Silva Former Drug Mule

10.57.19

10.57.25

ANALIA SILVA Spanish with subtitles

I got involved in selling drugs because I had no job. I did this for 7 months, because at the time I had no job and had to pay for my daughter's school, I had to pay rent, I had to eat, buy my clothes and supplies, and I couldn't afford it. I ended up in prison, with an eight year sentence. Eight years of being without your children, not being able to live with them, see them grow up or look after them. Because when they sentenced me, and it’s the same for every woman they sentence, they not only sentence the person who committed the crime, they also sentence their family, their children. They are encouraging these children, who are left alone, to be future criminals.

Caption:

Women drug mules make up over 75% of the female prison population in Ecuador

10.58.22

Music

Caption: EL INCA PRISON, QUITO

10.58.28

Name Super:

‘Nelsy’

Former Drug Mule

10.58.54

10.59.05

NELSY Spanish with subtitles

I got arrested for drugs trafficking and I've been here for 5 years and 7 months. I was carrying three kilos of cocaine. Most of us women are mules, who do it out of necessity as we have families to sustain. I have 4 children. In reality we are mothers and heads of households, who are in true need and aren't doing this to become millionaires, but because we really need to.

Caption:

Since being elected in 2006, President Correa has reduced sentences for drug offences and created prison rehabilitation programmes

10.59.24

Name Super:

Rafael Correa

President of Ecuador

10.59.34

10.59.41

RAFAEL CORREA Spanish with subtitles

The crime which was most harshly prosecuted was the drug felony and this was an injustice. And when you went to the women's prisons, the majority of women were jailed there for drugs. You wouldn't see the faces of criminals, you would see the faces of single mothers, of the unemployed, and of the poor. They didn’t just lose their freedom, but their human dignity, and we won't allow this to happen under our government. We are working hard and implementing important reforms.

11.00.10

NELSY Spanish with subtitles

The situation in jail is now much better than before, with less overcrowding. Since Correa took office, everything has changed a lot, the reforms to the penal code have improved things for us. It's not that he's rewarded us for being criminals, the truth is he's understood that we're human beings who've simply made a mistake.

Caption:

President Correa has also pardoned more than 2000 women drug mules and released them from prison

(note: this is as it appears in the film but should read XX2000 PERSONSXX??)

11.00.33

Music

11.00.48

RAFAEL CORREA

It’s a problem of poverty and social injustice. On a personal level, my father was in prison for three years in the USA for drug trafficking. From the ages of 5 to 8, I lived without a father, and my father wasn’t a criminal, he as just unemployed.

Name Super:

Domingo Paredes Director National Narcotic Substances 2009-2010

11.01.12

11.01.18

DOMINGO PAREDES Spanish with subtitles

This historic step that the president took to pardon, to release some of the capacity of the prisons, was because they were overcrowded. He also wanted to give another opportunity to people serving sentences for drug trafficking. This means that the pardons not only had a humanitarian purpose but also a social one, because these people who have committed crimes have the chance, just this once, of reintegrating back into society.

11.01.48

Music

Name Super:

Teresa Delgado

Former Drug Mule

11.02.08

11.02.21

TERESA Spanish with subtitles

Do you know how difficult it is to come out after having been in jail for six years, and realise you have nothing? It's very hard. It's very difficult to move forward with your life after that. The doors are closed for you when people realise you have been in prison. The President's pardon was a wonderful thing, it was a very noble gesture from him. He saw that we are human beings and we deserve another chance. But it's bad, because it's not just as simple as pardoning someone. The solution is for these people to at least have some sort of respectable work to be able to survive and support their families with dignity.

Name Super:

Néstor Arbito

Justice Minister Ecuador 2008-2009

11.03.19

11.03.24

NESTOR ARBITO Spanish with subtitles

As part of the prison reforms, we are generating a fund so that when people get out of jail they can use the fund to finance a project. They aren't huge projects, they might involve setting up a tailors of selling food and drink but this is already an alternative way of generating money.

11.03.44

DOMINGO PAREDES Spanish with subtitles

Putting people in a position, giving them the right business and marketing skills so that when they are release they are equipped to be part of Ecuadorian society and economy.

11.03.57

Music

11.04.05

MIKE TRACE

Unfortunately, the way that the laws are created under the UN systems, if you're arrested as a drug dealer, then we tend to give you very heavy penalties, whatever your story is. We are very poor at distinguishing between the powerful in the drug market, and the powerless. What Ecuador has done, is shown us there is a different way of going about this.

11.04.28

RAFAEL CORREA Spanish with subtitles

We don’t care about the international policies, what we are about is the Ecuadorian people as we are a sovereign nation. What we're doing here in Ecuador is simply moral justice. The drug laws have been repressive, without looking at the causes of the problem, which in countries like Ecuador has its origins primarily in poverty.

Caption:

MEXICO CITY

11.05.02

11.05.10

Music

Caption:

Drug consumption in Mexico has risen dramatically since President Calderón declared his war on drug trafficking.

11.05.32

Caption:

YOUTH CENTRE, TEPITO

11.05.38

11.05.44

11.05.48

WOMAN Spanish with subtitles

Have you been consuming?

11.05.52

BOY Spanish with subtitles

A little.

11.05.54

WOMAN Spanish with subtitles

Are you taking inhalants?

11.05.58

BOY Spanish with subtitles

Yes, a bit.

10.05.59

WOMAN Spanish with subtitles

And are you taking marijuana at night?

11.06.00

BOY Spanish with subtitles

OK that, not marijuana.

11.06.01

WOMAN Spanish with subtitles

Not marijuana.

Name Super:

Dr. Humberto Brocca

Medical Doctor

11.06.02

11.06.20

HUMBERTO BROCCA

They start their addiction where most people fear they will end, when they are addicted, abandoned in the street. Most of them, they say that they used drugs because that er, makes them forget past pain, or future pain, and present pain. Their life expectancy of all the street kid population in Mexico is estimated in twenty five years. But most of them, they die of accidents, and other consequences of drug use, or er, malnutrition. We are talking about roughly thirty thousand street kids in Mexico City. We are very optimistic that ten per cent can have a place in an organisation.

Name Super:

Alejandro

11.06.44

11.06.53

ALEJANDRO Spanish with subtitles

After crack, I started to take solvent and marijuana. And now I'm 15 years old, I left home when I was 10 and lived on the streets for 5 years and so I went back to taking crack and living on the streets. And I liked the streets but didn’t feel as relaxed as when I was at home. I felt better at home with my family. I used to miss them when I was on the streets and I used to regret leaving my house.

11.07.29

Music

11.07.33

HUMBERTO BROCCA

The frontier has been closing in, and may, much of the product that is supposed to cross the border, stays down here, so cocaine has risen up, more than fifty per cent cocaine use, both in crack, and in the powder form, and in the past five years, .

Name Super:

Fernando

11.08.01

11.08.02

FERNANDO Spanish with subtitles

I started taking crack at 8 years old. I went to a party and met up with some friends, the first thing I tried was alcohol and I got drunk. My friends said I should try it, as it would sober me up, and I tried it, and I started to like it. I would spend up to £18 on it but would have to spend all day begging and cleaning windscreens, both night and day. With crack you forget you're cold and hungry, so you say to yourself, "I'm on the street with no one looking after me, I'll see what it feels like."

11.09.00

HUMBERTO BROCCA

We have detox programmes, and we mostly use counselling, psychological counselling, because it’s cheap. And it’s good. Once they are starting on – on detox, we teach them whatever trades they have available. Then they can start a business or a trade for themselves. We have a little trouble trying to get them integrated into society, because society rejects them. So we work a lot in the community, try to – to get society naked of – of stigma.

11.09.36

WOMAN Spanish with subtitles

How long have you been consuming on a daily basis?

11.09.39

JESUS Spanish with subtitles

Three months.

11.09.41

WOMAN Spanish with subtitles

Three months?

Name Super:

Jesús

11.09.44

11.09.48

JESUS Spanish with subtitles

Yes. What I'm doing now is trying not to take drugs, playing going to the school. I think the amount of drugs you can find is increasing, because they're so easy to buy. But I wish that quitting them could be as easy as buying them.

11.10.13

Music

11.10.19

HUMBERTO BROCCA

War on poverty would be better. War on inequality would be better. A war on this er, stigma would be much better. So what we would say, at a social level, what we’re trying to do is to make this a health issue. Not a criminal issue, because er, the viewpoint of the society is that this is a criminals. And not sick people.

Caption:

BALTIMORE, USA

11.10.48

11.10.55

Music

Name Super:

Major Neill Franklin Maryland State Police (Retired)

11.11.15

11.11.32

NEILL FRANKLIN

Unfortunately, illegal drug trade in Baltimore is a very big part of Baltimore’s economy. For the er, illicit drug trade, they recruit juveniles to, to run their products. Er, to hold their products and er, you will find them from the age of six, or seven, all the way up. You will talk to some of these young people out here, and they’ll tell you right out back, they don’t expect to live beyond the age of twenty five, if that far. That’s why the violence is so easy, because when you have people who have no hopes, and no dreams that far down the road. Er, believe me. Violence is, is no big deal to them. No big deal to them. You know, this is the norm. For many kids, who grow up in communities where drug dealing is so prevalent.

11.12.08

Music

11.12.22

MAN

First of all we’re going to talk about the rules. The rules is very simple ... respect. One person talk at a time. And you talk, I don’t. I talk, you don’t. One voice. One group. We do everything together. Right.

Name Super:

Benita Paschall

Director, Echo House Treatment Centre

11.12.35

11.12.42

BENITA PASCHALL

Maryland is a tough state. And Maryland puts people away for a very, very long time. And, um, mostly kids that come to us, have been in trouble. Baltimore had a very high juvenile crime rate. Very high juvenile. Arrest rate. I mean the numbers are staggering. The numbers are staggering. Two or three thousand children are arrested almost every week. In this city. And they’re arrested for drugs. That’s how serious the problems are with our children. And they come here, because it has been identified that the child is using drugs.

11.13.05

MAN

What type of distraction can you use when those god…

Caption:

Davon Johnson

Drug User & Former Dealer

11.13.08

11.13.15

DAVON

I started off with marijuana. Just a couple of bags of marijuana. And they grow. They grew big. We was making more money, and even went into a high drug, we started to cocaine. And use that sort of cocaine, it's high stuff, there. Basically, I started from like a look out. People come and tell me look out eh, you see the police yeah, and anything like that, started like that. Then you work your way up, you get to get the stuff out. The moment you make the higher position, you get, when you get there, haven’t seen a group ... sixty thousand of us. And I move with a different group, the next ... unseen, and do it almost a hundred thousand. As you work your way up, you learn about a lot of violence too. I seen my home boys get killed. I’ve been in the court room when, and why they catch a lot of time. Er, I’ve been locked up away from my family. Er, robbed, everything. That’s the - that’s why I wanted to leave it alone. Because I made a lot of mistakes. So, I think. I think I’ve slowly sitting on the cell right now, but I’m – I’m lucky. I really am lucky.

Caption:

The USA has over 500,000 people imprisoned on drugs charges

11.14.23

11.14.28

Music

Caption:

MARYLAND METROPOLITAN TRANSITION CENTRE

Name Super:

ErikThompson

Former Drug Dealer

11.14.45

11.14.53

11.15.06

ERIK THOMPSON

I'm incarcerated for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, and my sentence is twenty five years, no parole. I grew up in an inner city, of Baltimore city, er, housing projects, La-, Lafeyette homes, which are no longer standing any more, you know, I just got caught up. You know, saying when people get high, they know I got high on money cash, and you know, what I thought was power and respect. If locking an individual up, whom happens to be – a genuine threat to society, then by all means, I say, you know, okay yeah. ‘Cause I’m going to be honest with you. Some guys that are in here, I’m kind of glad they're in here. But some people, you know, just, got on them drugs, and they got caught up, and on paper, only thing they know that are an offender. And it doesn’t go beyond that.

11.16.32

I've watched murderers get out before me. I watch paedophiles get out before me. You know, when the court of appeal send you a letter back, saying that you’ve been denied, they say that it’s in the best interests of the public. Well, what people were you talking to? ‘Cause you haven’t talked to the people in my neighbourhood.

11.16.16

Music

Caption:

African-Americans are up to ten times more likely to be given a prison sentence on a drugs charge than their white counterparts

11.16.17

11.16.29

NEILL FRANKLIN

Incarceration is not the answer. You will completely destroy your communities, as we have already begun. When the war on drugs was launched by – under the administration of president Nixon, and all this money started flowing in to these law enforcement agencies, we started – arresting, people, er, we put a lot of fathers in prison. We started a cycle, of these young black men going to prison in these urban areas, because of criminal conviction will follow you for the rest of your life. It will prevent you from getting employment, it will hinder you from getting housing, it will hinder you from going to - to school, it will prevent you from getting er, loans. You can get over an addiction, but you’ll never get over a conviction.

11.17.34

ERIK THOMPSON

I feel as though it was justified in sending me to prison. I don’t feel it was going – it was justified with the title and the stigma that came with it. You're a career criminal. Sit in a corner, do your time, you have absolutely nothing coming to you. What that does is, it says that you come into the penal system, because of the amount of time that you have, you're absolutely eligible for nothing.

I was deserving of something. But I don’t think it should have been this.

11.18.05

MIKE TRACE

The USA has always been the country that has been most enthusiastic about the war on drugs approach. By heavy levels of arrest, and heavy punishments, and it’s usually the poorest and most disenfranchised who suffer the biggest damage.

Caption:

In 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the USA and promised a new strategy in the fight against drugs

Name Super:

Gil Kerlikowske Director