Traffic

Thet film Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000) suggests many of the reasons why the war on drugs has seemed doomed to failure, based on the economics of the international drug trade today. The film tells several stories at one time, but at heart, all relate to the central issue of why drugs are grown in poor countries like Mexico and then smuggled into richer countries like the United States, why desperate people will enter the drug trade to make a living, and why huge cartels have come into being to oversee the drug trade.

The failure of the war on drugs has been much discussed, and even conservatives are beginning to express doubts. A recent article in The Washington Times asks,

For decades, we have been grinding away at the dope trade, spending hugely, putting appalling numbers of users and dealers in prison, increasing the powers of the federal police. What have we gotten for it? (Reed, 2000, p. C2).

The answer given is, not much: "Because of the drug laws, horrendous amounts of money go to drug lords in Colombia who otherwise couldn't make a living" (Reed, 2000, p. C2). This is also the answer given by the film Traffic.

In the film, the direction of the drug traffic is clear--it moves from the poorer countries of Latin America north to where the market is, in the United States. This traffic involves the heads of the cartels, those who work for them, distributors in the United States, and small-time pushers such as the black man who deals through a crack in hi

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ecause she has a new process that will help bring more drugs into the country. Demand for drugs is elastic over time, rising and falling according to social attitudes, economic realities, and specifically the number of users. The pervasive nature of the drug problem is seen in the film as users come from all walks of life, many simply experimenting or rebelling, others turning to drugs as a means of escape from the horrors of their existence. Caroline Wakefield is a daughter of privilege, but she begins using drugs because others in her social group use them. These young people are rebelling against society or against parents they do not understand or who do not understand them. For many, experimentation is all that is involved. For some, like Catherine, using drugs taps into some psychological predisposition toward addiction, and the girl sinks further into the drug world and soon cares for nothing except her supply. Drug czar Robert Hudson Wakefield has little idea about the scope of the drug war, no understanding at all of the nuances of the situation within Mexico, and no understanding of his daughter. Yet, as the film shows, even if he did understand the situation better, he would be able to do very little to make an

Category: Film - T