Drug Addict (film)

Last updated
Drug Addict
Directed by Robert Anderson
Written byRobert Anderson
Produced byRobert Anderson
Narrated byJohn Scott
CinematographyJean-Marie Couture
Edited byVictor Jobin
Music by Robert Fleming
Production
company
Distributed byNational Film Board of Canada
Release date
  • 1948 (1948)
Running time
34 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Drug Addict is a 1948 documentary made by Robert Anderson for the National Film Board of Canada. It is the only Canadian film that remains banned in the United States. [1]

Contents

Synopsis

The film traces the strange progress of illicit narcotics and illustrates how the drug addict is created, and the relationship between addict and pusher. It also suggests how the grim social reality may be curbed.

Its main themes are that addicts are from all races and classes, that most traffickers are white, that law enforcement only targets low-level dealers, that there is little difference between addiction to legal and illegal drugs, that cocaine is not necessarily addictive, that drug addicts are not violent, that law-enforcement control of it is impossible, and that drug addiction is a sickness. [2]

Production

Drug Addict was originally intended to be a training film for law enforcement personnel, social workers, and medical professionals; Anderson wrote it in 1947 with the assistance of Health and Welfare Canada and R.C.M.P. Commissioner Leonard Nicholson. For research, he followed Vancouver-area R.C.M.P., watching them kick in doors, arrest dealers, and burn a poppy field. He shot most of the film in New York: in Harlem, Chinatown, and the port shipyards. He finished shooting in Montreal, using street addicts as actors. [3]

The United States Ban of Drug Addict

The release of Drug Addict heartened Alfred R. Lindesmith, an Indiana University sociology professor who advocated the medical treatment of drug addiction. In 1940, he published the article Dope Fiend Mythology, [4] in which he criticized the media’s use of stereotypes such as ‘freak’ and ‘dope fiend’, and stated that drug addicts are normal human beings with an illness, and that punitive actions against them are unreasonable.

Drug Addict outraged Harry J. Anslinger, the ‘moral enforcer’ who was head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) from 1930 to 1962. The early 20th-century mass migration of minorities to northern U.S. cities, and the emergence of an illicit narcotics market, had created public anxiety and suspicion directed at immigrants and people of color. Anslinger, who had a hard-line drug policy, and who had the support of Democrats, Republicans, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and many churches, exploited these fears by linking drugs to minorities. As he also controlled licensing for the importation of opiates, he had the support of drug companies. And he controlled the flow of information about drugs and drug addiction; as late as the 1950s, the intimidation of the FBN made it difficult to publish books on drugs or drug use. [5]

Beginning in 1939, Anslinger directly targeted Alfred Lindesmith with a campaign of intimidation, slander, and guilt-by-association. He attempted to intimidate Indiana University, he formally called Lindesmith a ‘drug addict’, a ‘crackpot’, and a ‘communist’. It is believed that the FBN tapped Lindesmith's phone and planted, or attempted to plant, drugs in his house and car.

Lindesmith, who initially had no support from his peers, viewed Drug Addict as the opening of a window, a significant aid in affecting American perceptions of drug use and addiction, and an opportunity to end prohibitionist policies. Drug Addict depicts addicts as desperate, pathetic, and sick individuals, suffering from guilt and withdrawal—it was a direct rebuttal to the rationale for Anslinger's policies. Anslinger knew of the potential political hazards that the film could foster if the public was presented with such a rebuttal, particularly one produced with the assistance of a government as credible as Canada's, and its national police force. He saw the film as a threat to the existence of the FBN.

When Lindesmith traveled to Ottawa to view the film and attend a United Nations reception for it, Anslinger had the American Ambassador to Canada request that Lindesmith not be allowed to see the film. The Canadian government declined the request. Anslinger asked that the Canadian government not distribute the film in the United States and that it censor the film within its own borders; the Canadians rejected the request. He then had the film banned in the United States and requested that the Canadian government ban it in Canada; that request was refused.

While the two men wrote competing New York Times editorials, Anslinger falsely claimed that the film had been banned under the Motion Picture Association code. The Women's Christian Temperance Union pressured Lindesmith to stop his campaign; Anslinger tried to involve J. Edgar Hoover. But Indiana University had stood behind Lindesmith; eventually, after years of being harassed themselves, physicians and lawyers sided with him. The American Bar Association, the American Medical Association, and Indiana University formed a committee to study drug addiction and, in 1961, published a report, edited by Lindesmith, called Drug Addiction – Crime or Disease. [6] Anslinger tried to stop its publication. His superiors told him to cease his campaign against Lindesmith; when he did not, he was scrutinized for insubordination, and in 1962, he was forced to resign. Technically, Drug Addict remains banned in the United States. [7]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harrison Narcotics Tax Act</span> U.S. federal law regulating and taxing narcotics

The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was a United States federal law that regulated and taxed the production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products. The act was proposed by Representative Francis Burton Harrison of New York and was approved on December 17, 1914.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drug policy of the Netherlands</span>

While recreational use, possession and trade of non-medicinal drugs described by the Opium Law are all technically illegal under Dutch law, official policy since the late 20th century has been to openly tolerate all recreational use while tolerating possession and trade under certain circumstances. This pragmatic approach was motivated by the idea that a drug-free Dutch society is unrealistic and unattainable, and efforts would be better spent trying to minimize harm caused by recreational drug use. As a result of this gedoogbeleid, the Netherlands is typically seen as much more tolerant of drugs than most other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drug prohibition</span> History, effects and enforcement of the prohibition of drugs

The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marihuana Tax Act of 1937</span> American law placing a tax on cannabis

The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law  75–238, 50 Stat. 551, enacted August 2, 1937, was a United States Act that placed a tax on the sale of cannabis. The H.R. 6385 act was drafted by Harry Anslinger and introduced by Rep. Robert L. Doughton of North Carolina, on April 14, 1937. The Seventy-fifth United States Congress held hearings on April 27, 28, 29th, 30th, and May 4, 1937. Upon the congressional hearings confirmation, the H.R. 6385 act was redrafted as H.R. 6906 and introduced with House Report 792. The Act is referred to, using the modern spelling, as the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. It was overturned in 1969 in Leary v. United States, and was repealed by Congress the next year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry J. Anslinger</span> 1st Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (1892–1975)

Harry Jacob Anslinger was an American government official who served as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics during the presidencies of Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. He was a supporter of Prohibition, and of the criminalization of all drugs except for alcohol, and spearheaded anti-drug policy campaigns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War on drugs</span> Global anti-drug campaign led by the United States

The war on drugs is the policy of a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States. The initiative includes a set of drug policies that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of psychoactive drugs that the participating governments, through United Nations treaties, have made illegal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs</span> 1961 international treaty regulating narcotic drugs

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 is an international treaty that controls activities of specific narcotic drugs and lays down a system of regulations for their medical and scientific uses; it also establishes the International Narcotics Control Board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaGuardia Committee report</span> Study into the effects of smoking cannabis

The LaGuardia Committee report was an official scientific report published in 1944 that questioned the prohibition of cannabis in the United States. The report contradicted claims by the U.S. Treasury Department that smoking marijuana deteriorates physical and mental health, assists in criminal behavior and juvenile delinquency, is physically addictive, and is a "gateway" drug to more dangerous drugs.

<i>Human Wreckage</i> 1923 film

Human Wreckage is a 1923 American independent silent drama propaganda film that starred Dorothy Davenport and featured James Kirkwood, Sr., Bessie Love, and Lucille Ricksen. The film was co-produced by Davenport and Thomas H. Ince and distributed by Film Booking Offices of America, with a premiere on June 17, 1923. No print of this film is known to exist today, and it is considered a lost film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred R. Lindesmith</span> American sociologist

Alfred Ray Lindesmith was an Indiana University professor of sociology. He was among the early scholars providing a rigorous and thoughtful account of the nature of addiction. He was a critic of legal prohibitions against addictive drugs, arguing that such prohibitions had adverse societal effects. Lindesmith's work in drug policy and addiction at Indiana U. was an element of progressivism, along with the landmark work of Alfred Kinsey and his associates at The Kinsey Institute, under the supervision of IU President Herman Wells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal history of cannabis in the United States</span>

In the United States, increased restrictions and labeling of cannabis as a poison began in many states from 1906 onward, and outright prohibitions began in the 1920s. By the mid-1930s cannabis was regulated as a drug in every state, including 35 states that adopted the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act. The first national regulation was the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.

A drug policy is the policy regarding the control and regulation of psychoactive substances, particularly those that are addictive or cause physical and mental dependence. While drug policies are generally implemented by governments, entities at all levels may have specific policies related to drugs.

The drug policy of Sweden is based on zero tolerance focusing on prevention, treatment, and control, aiming to reduce both the supply of and demand for illegal drugs. The general drug policy is supported by all major Swedish political parties with the exceptions of the Left Party - which advocates for the decriminalization of private consumption - and 5 of the 7 major parties' youth wings.

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws developed the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act in 1934 due to the lack of restrictions in the Harrison Act of 1914. The Harrison Act was a revenue-producing act and, while it provided penalties for violations, it did not give authority to the states to exercise police power regarding either seizure of drugs used in illicit trade or punishment of those responsible.

The major drug laws of India are the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (1985) and the Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (1988).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Licata</span> American mass murderer (c. 1912–1950)

Victor Licata was an American mass murderer who used an axe to kill his family in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, on October 16, 1933. The killings, which were reported by the media as the work of an "axe-murdering marijuana addict", were adduced as prima facie evidence that there was a link between recreational drugs, such as cannabis, and crime. This led to the killings being used in 1930s anti-drug campaigns against marijuana.

<i>Chasing the Scream</i> 2015 book by Johann Hari

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs is a book by Johann Hari examining the history and impact of drug criminalisation, collectively known as "the War on Drugs". The book was published simultaneously in the United Kingdom and United States in January 2015. It inspired the 2021 biographical film The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

Discrimination against drug addicts is a form of discrimination against people who suffer from a drug addiction.

Robert Anderson was a Canadian filmmaker who specialized in films about psychiatry, first with the National Film Board of Canada, and then through his own company. He was the first filmmaker to create truthful, objective films about mental health and addiction, and to make films of this type using actual patients, doctors and hospitals, rather than actors in reconstructions. His most famous film is Drug Addict, which caused a furor when it was banned in the United States. Anderson was co-founder of the Canadian National Science Film Library, and he played a large role in bringing television to the Canadian House of Commons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ma Beland</span> American criminal (1870–1941)

Lucy Beland, also known as Ma Beland, was an American criminal. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, she and her children sold narcotics, including morphine, cocaine and heroin. Beland was often cast as the leader of the Beland crime family, whose members were convicted of narcotics crimes at least 30 times from 1921 to 1947.

References

  1. ↑ "Drug Addict, Film Record". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  2. ↑ "Drug Addict, Viewing Information". nfb.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  3. ↑ Anderson, Robert. "Personal Memoirs". dblack1713.tripod.com. D. Black. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  4. ↑ Lindesmith, A.R. "Dope Fiend Mythology". northwestern.edu. Northwestern University. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  5. ↑ Weibreb, Michael. "The Complicated Legacy of Harry Anslinger" (PDF). case.org. Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  6. ↑ "DRUG ADDICTION - CRIME OR DISEASE". ojp.gov. U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  7. ↑ Galliher, John F; Keys, David P; Elsner, Michael. "Lindesmith v. Anslinger: An early government victory in the failed war on drugs". druglibrary.net. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  8. ↑ Maria Topalovich, And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. ISBN   0-7737-3238-1.
  9. ↑ "Film in 1950". bafta.org. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 10 April 2023.

Drug Addict in the NFB collection catalog

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.