In short episodes on The Roku Channel, The Fix debunks drug-war myths. It's narrated by Samuel L. Jackson and directed with breathless intensity by Jeremiah Zagar and several others.
Based on Johann Hari's book Chasing the Scream, The Fix is quite the polemic divided up neatly into eight 6-9 minute chapters. Zagar provides an overview about addiction in the first episode. The pace picks up with Cassidy Gearhart's overview of the War of Drugs, pinning the entire problem on architect Harry J. Anslinger. The third section by Nathan Caswell, focusing on the science behind "getting high," veers off into a discussion plant medicine. Talking heads Julie Holland, Carl Hart and Maia Szalavitz are introduced and reappear in later episodes.
How to win the War on Drugs? "By ending it," says Samuel L. Jackson.
The drug violence and enforcement sections by Joshua Banville and Caswell respectively address the racial aspects to the drug war and the increases in cartel and gang activity over illicit distribution and sales.
Caswell's third episode, about the opioid crisis, is another good one featuring experts Holland, Hart and Szalavitz.
After Gearhart contrasts 12-step treatment methodologies vs. harm reduction apporoaches that include psychedelic therapy, Zagar wraps up the series with at look Portugal and Switizerland, countries where some drugs have been totaly decriminalized.
It's a nice effort to reaffirm much of what we already know. that the drug war is a sham. "It's no longer the question anymore," Jackson declares, "it's the answer." How to win the War on Drugs? "By ending it."
While the series' razzle-dazzle video approach can be jarring to follow, the message comes though loud and clear.
