Documentaries
Increasingly, it seems that the American Dream is over, or at least postponed. Many who voted for Donald Trump did so in the hope that he would bring back the industries and businesses that have deserted their regions, leaving devastated communities in their wake.
The feature-length documentary Meth Storm (SoHo, Sky 010, Tuesday, 9.30pm) shows how that void is often filled with drugs. Peabody Awardwinning documentarians Brent and Craig Renaud spent several years in rural Arkansas, meeting people involved with ice, a new potent
methamphetamine imported by Mexican cartels: drug squad agents, police, dealers, users and families. It’s an irony that the local meth industry collapsed when states banned over-the-counter sale of pseudoephedrine. Enter the cartels.
In some cases, drug abuse is multi-generational. “In the environment these kids were raised in, I don’t know if they had an opportunity not to be
involved,” says Drug Enforcement Administration agent Johnny Sowell. To illustrate the point, the Renauds focus on a meth-addicted mother and her drug-dealing sons.
“It’s face-to-face with the forgotten American, and this is a growing America,” Brent Renaud told Rolling Stone. “They are abandoned. People’s opportunities for education, jobs, and healthcare are terrible.”