Pubdate: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 Source: New York Daily News (NY) Copyright: 2013 Daily News, L.P. Contact: http://www.nydailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295 Author: Justin Rocket Silverman RAW DEAL Grenier Says Drug War Needs a Fix Drug-dealing is like any business: There's risk, there's reward, and now there's a how-to guide for those eager to get rich or die trying. Enter "How to Make Money Selling Drugs," director Matthew Cooke's film, opening today, which is just what its title suggests: a step-by-step guide on how to rise from a street dealer to an international kingpin. Along the way, it makes a searing criticism of America's "war on drugs," which last year cost the nation an estimated $25 billion. It's this criticism that attracted former "Entourage" star Adrian Grenier, a longtime friend of Cooke's, to co-produce the movie. "At the bare minimum, the militarized, SWAT-team approach to dealing with the demand for drugs is wrong," Grenier tells the Daily News. "It's worse than the drug use itself, I would say." Putting out a film that depicts drug dealers as persecuted entrepreneurs rather than opportunistic outlaws - while glorifying the narcotics trade for its excitement and earnings - drew heat and made it hard to find insiders willing to appear on camera. "The most difficult thing was trying to convince people to speak openly and candidly," Grenier says. "We've been conditioned for so many years that drug dealers are inherently evil and should be put in jail, that they threaten our communities and we should fear them." In the film, viewers meet a midlevel cocaine dealer who gives tips for success in his highly illegal work, which can pay over $1,000 a day, he claims. (Hints: Keep customers at a distance, but be fair and friendly, have a stash spot for drugs and money, and have an exit strategy ready.) Despite the controversial content, a number of big names did agree to be interviewed, including Eminem, Susan Sarandon, Russell Simmons and Woody Harrelson - already a critic of the drug war and an advocate for legalization of marijuana. Rapper 50 Cent (born Curtis Jackson in South Jamaica, Queens) details how he learned the dealing life early, as his mother began selling when he was young. She became an established and feared drug pusher before being killed when Jackson was 8. As Jackson explains in the film, his mom's dealer friends supported him as a young boy, bringing him into the business by giving him his first "eight ball" of cocaine to sell when he was 12. They also gave him very specific instructions if anyone challenged his right to sell on the street: He was just to say who gave him the coke, and then he'd be left alone ... mostly. Cops apparently didn't get the memo, and after multiple arrests Jackson says he made the decision to retire from dealing. As the film explains, for those who aren't killed in the trade, prison time is a given. Cooke's film claims the drug war has led the U.S. to put more of its citizens in jail than any other nation. "We hunt the poor and incarcerate them at levels unheard of in other parts of the world," says David Simon, who spent years as a crime reporter in Baltimore before creating HBO's acclaimed series "The Wire." Grenier says he hopes the marquee names in the film will give "How to Make Money Selling g Drugs" a crossover appeal that previous docs on the drug war have lacked. The self-help style - think "How to Win Friends & Influence People" for the "Breaking Bad" " era - could assist. In the end, Grenier sees the film as a meditation on decriminalization. "First and foremost, let's stop throwing people in jail for nonviolent drug offenses," Grenier says. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom