Drugs, Inc.: Dealer POV
Release Date: September 13, 2014
Watch Date: May 10, 2023
I learned a lot about gangs yesterday. Not from this documentary, but from Bob, who I often forget did not grow up on 'the right side of the tracks' as they so very annoyingly say. Now, my husband was not in a gang, he's a nerd - not that gang members can't be nerds, but he just is too much of one to even consider the position - and he moved to Kansas before prime gang membership years. But, much of his family, on both sides, were in various gangs. Well, two gangs. It sounds like. You probably wouldn't have a family maybe up of too many different gangs because then you'd all be killing each other. Gangs are like little nations, it's complicated, and maybe they'd benefit from a UN.
While I felt like a complete fish out of water, Bob really enjoyed this documentary. Other than thinking that the gang based in New York might be the lamest gang ever, he definitely understood the material, and I think had fun explaining parts that made no sense to me. A lot of it made very little sense to me. It's just not a part of the world I grew up in, or currently live in, at all.
I understand the bandanas and the voice changing because, obviously, whether or not these guys signed up to wear cameras and film their daily life, they are still criminals, and they can't be caught. The one person who didn't seem to really get the memo was Finesse, the driver from Atlanta. Pretty sure she could have done better than a masquerade mask and sitting half in shadows, and I'm pretty sure National Geographic could have insisted on better for the sake of her anonymity. Bob and I seriously couldn't help but laugh every time she was interviewed, they way they shot her just made her look insane.
There is a part of me that, despite not understanding anything that was going on, did appreciate this film for one simple fact, it made people I might otherwise just dismiss as criminals into humans. I work in the medical field, and see people from all walks of life, so I don't normally struggle with this aspect, but when you think you're sitting down to watch a bunch of people deal drugs, you don't think too highly of them. But then the guy from Atlanta talks about how passionate he is about history, and how he likes to go to museums or cultural heritage sites on his day off to relax and...I dunno I get it. I see you, random drug dealer man who shot a guy five minutes into this special. I don't understand the life you lead or the choices that led you there, but I too, would go to a museum to relax.
It goes to show that if you try hard enough, you can make a connection with anyone, and I like to think that was the true purpose of this documentary. Not to shock value people as they watched someone sell meth, but to remind us all that we can all find a way to relate to the people around us, even if we think it's impossible and that we could never understand the world they come from.
Still, I probably won't be found wandering around Bob's old neighborhood anytime soon.
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