The hopelessness of anti-drug measures is brought home through practical scenarios, not speeches and messages-except for a few. It watches, it observes, it does not do much editorializing. Soderbergh's film uses a level-headed approach. Drugs are produced by subsistence-level peasants and move through a distribution chain of street sellers costs to the end user are kept low, to encourage addiction. If there is anything more lucrative than an addictive substance that is legal, like alcohol or tobacco, it is one that is illegal, like drugs-because the suppliers aren't taxed or regulated and have no overhead for advertising, packaging, insurance, employee benefits or quality control. At every level, the illegal drug business is about making money. The story in North America is much the same, which is why adapting this material was so depressingly easy.
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The movie is inspired by a five-part "Masterpiece Theater" series named "Traffik," which ran 10 years ago and traced the movement of heroin from the poppy fields of Turkey to the streets of Europe. authorities is compromised because key people on both sides may be corrupt, and betray secrets. And we see how cooperation between Mexican and U.S. We also meet a Mexican general who has made it his goal to destroy a drug cartel-but not for the reasons he claims.
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And his teenage daughter, who becomes addicted to crack cocaine and nearly destroys her life. A Ohio state supreme court judge who is appointed the U.S. A high-level drug millionaire who seems to be a respectable businessman. A mid-level wholesaler who imports drugs from Mexico. We meet two Mexican drug enforcement cops.
The movie tells several parallel stories, which sometimes link but usually do not. Certainly drugs breed crime-addicts steal because they must-and a more rational policy would result in a lower crime rate and a safer society. Soderbergh himself does not favor legalizing drugs, but believes addiction is a public health problem, not a crime. These are the conclusions I draw from "Traffic," Steven Soderbergh's new film, which traces the drug traffic in North America from the bottom to the top of the supply chain. If the decriminalization of drugs were ever seriously considered in this country, the opponents would include not only high-minded public servants, but also the kingpins of the illegal drug industry. And the drug cartels themselves, since the laws make their business so profitable. And corrupt lawmen, who find drugs a lucrative source of bribes, kickbacks and payoffs. Also politicians who may know drug laws are futile, but don't have the nerve to appear soft on the issue. Who supports the drug law enforcement industry? A good many honest and sincere people, to be sure. "For someone my age," says a high school student in the new film "Traffic," "it's a lot easier to get drugs than it is to get alcohol." Despite billions of dollars spent and a toll of death, addiction, crime, corruption and lives wasted in prison, it is possible today for anyone who wants drugs to get them. Our laws against illegal drugs function as a price support system for the criminal drug industry.
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