Pay-Off In Pain

A newsreel-style Canadian documentary looking at burgeoning drug addiction on the North American continent. Drugs that sell for $50 in India can retail on the streets at home for $15,000 - clearly a motivation for those that smuggle to the plentiful addicts. Many people who use find themselves caught in a vicious circle of crime to fund their habit. The dealers and peddlars make a fortune and organised crime ensures the frequently diluted narcotics are well and easily distributed. The law has little resource to combat this increasingly lucrative trade with some spending up to $30 per day for their opiate fix. Cocaine is also gaining in popularity - but should it be banned. Are addicts criminals or sick people? This is clearly designed to warn the audience of the dangers of drugs. It draws somewhat simplistic associations between dependency and violence, hallucinations, mental illness - all with a score that wouldn't sound out of place in a horror film. Can the signing of the UN Narcotics control protocol help solve this global problem. Is jail an answer? Are "useful citizens" being thrown into the prison system needlessly? Questions we ask now - and there are still no magic answers.