See drug war fallout

The war is over, and we all lost. We’ve killed each other mercilessly, pitted brothers against mothers and filled our prisons needlessly to become world’s leading jailer in the land of the free. Our beloved USA has 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of its prisoners.

The 40-year-old war on drugs did it, a colossal fraud and failure, a prohibitionist set of laws that has served only to fill our prisons. The Exile Nation Project can help you understand what I’m saying. It’s a two-hour oral history of the war told by historians, police, judges, social workers, former prisoners, their loved ones, lobbyists, community activists and people like yourself.

If you’ve wondered why the Spokane jail books almost half of arrestees on a drug charge, you’ll want to spend a warm summer evening with us at the Magic Lantern Theatre in Spokane from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday. Also featured in the documentary are writers Nora Callahan and Chuck Armsbury of the November Coalition office in Colville. We, along with film director Charles Shaw, will be at this premiere Inland Northwest screening to answer your questions.

See www.exilenation.org.

Chuck Armsbury

Colville