Once again, Vice covers… sin in her self-referential way. As with The World’s Scariest Drugs and The Most Intoxicating Places On Earth, Vice delves into the realities of drugs and addiction and the laws (or lack thereof) surrounding them. In “Addiction,” Vice takes us on a tour of a “new age” clinic in Malang, a voodoo-style healing cycle in Brooklyn, New York, and an upscale Mexican mansion that serves as a heroin rehab center, inevitably making you question legal drugs And addiction is indeed for the good of the people.
The first half of the documentary, Tobaccoland, focuses on the tobacco industry in Indonesia. There, the tobacco industry never needed to shy away from anti-smoking legislation or rhetoric and let it thrive unhindered. More than two-thirds of adult men smoke, and it is not uncommon for children (usually as young as 6) to pick up the habit. Associate correspondent Thomas Morton gets a first-hand look at Indonesia’s smoking culture: from picking up his first pack of cigarettes for the day with an elementary school student, to visiting a clinic that promises to cure a wide range of ailments through smoking and tobacco therapy.
The second installment, “The Underground Heroin Clinic,” follows a heroin addict who recovers with the help of ibogaine, a drug made from the African iboga root. Iboga is used for its purported ability to bypass the withdrawal process, but is classified as a Class A criminal drug in the United States due to its strong hallucinogenic properties. Co-founder and correspondent Shane Smith follows the journey of a young man from Brooklyn, where he meets a voodoo healer who supports ibogaine’s pro-slash ritual, to Mexico, where he uses ibogaine because it is legal.
Addiction’s two short pieces feature immersive journalism: Reporters Thomas Morton and Shane Smith immerse themselves in their respective worlds of addiction and interact one-on-one with those affected. Instead of the impersonal and ostensibly objective style of traditional journalism, the resulting documentaries are personal, immediate and raw. The immersive documentary style and dark themes combine perfectly to present a heartbreaking story in a very real way.
