Inspiration from 2 documentaries

I happened to pick up "American Drug War" from the library the other day.  It is a documentary on the cause and effect of licit and illicit drugs in American society.  There is excellent insight into the funding of the drug problem in the US and how crack became so big with the help of certain CIA connections.  Sure, you could say it is a conspiracy theory, but if we can track a package of mail ordered socks from one end of the country, we can sure detect every drug coming in from outside the country.  Otherwise, someone would have smuggled more bomb making materials into the US and used them by now.  I sincerely believe we allow a certain amount of drugs in by looking the other way and taking a cut.  Somebody is making some money somewhere.  Most likely the feds.  It is in their best interest to keep people drugged and dumbed down and/or in prison so there are fewer people to interfere with their agenda.  The prison system in the US is a huge money maker that feeds the upper class and government.  The fastest growing drug of abuse besides marijuana and alcohol, is prescription drugs... in particular, opioids.  The number one prescribed drug in the US is hydrocodone with acetaminophen (generic Vicodin).  Basically it is a pain killer that can be found on any corner and almost every bathroom medicine cabinet.

The other movie I saw was "Waiting for Superman" which is about the failure of the US school system.  Simply put, we are looking at dumbing down people to maintain status quo.  There is too much money to be made by making people working class and scraping by, so they can't get the free time or energy to take on the system.  Plus, many (is not most) of the kids who drop out get involved in the drug trade as users or suppliers, and then feed the aforementioned correctional complex.  Most teachers are overwhelmed and have no time or inclination to learn how to do a better job.  They get comfortable and do just enough to get by until tenure kicks in and then they are set till retirement.

So the comparison of the two films shows how the greed for money and power, fuels both situations.  The government isn't going to stop drugs from being made readily available to anyone who wants them, so they can stay in a stupor, and then busts enough to fill the prisons till they are bursting.  The feds also don't want educators to get any better at their job, lest they produce someone smart enough to realize they are being had.  And one by one, as they drop out of school and become criminals or lead an unfulfilling life, they go to the corner dealer, corner liquor store, or just walk into the bathroom and open the medicine cabinet and get a drug to sooth them because fighting back against the greedy power mongers takes too much effort.  We have never made them work hard before, so we know they don't stand a chance to muster up the energy to get politically involved much less march on Washington.