Traffic Steven Soderbergh Analysis

Keywords that are most important to the documentary are, War on Drugs, incarceration, drug involvement/abuse, and racism. All of these words are loosely or heavily connected to each other. The words drug involvement/abuse highlight the purpose of the film, and the reasons for the War on Drugs and numerous laws created to fight drug abuse that cause death and destroy abiding citizens of communities. Furthermore, the War on Drugs simply labels the struggle against drug use and the governmental involvement to enforce anti-drug laws. The word incarceration and racism also link together to explain how as a result of the War on Drugs, the U.S. is one of the top countries with the highest imprisonment rate and more African-Americans or low-class minorities are convicted of drug crimes than any other ethnicity or social class. Since, the majority of African-Americans live in areas of drug involvement, they are more likely to be racially profiled and investigated. This has created an uneven ethnic ratio in prisons and produced stereotypes that affect children that prevent them from becoming abiding citizens.

Written and published in 2008 by Paul Gootenberg, History professor and Latin American studies at University of New York at Stony Brook, “Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global drug” retraces the pivotal stages of the illicit cocaine trafficking, starting from the boundless coca fields in Latin America to the chemistry laboratories in Europe up until the streets of U.S. cities. The aim of this book review is to provide the reader with a short but detailed insight of what is the main content of the book, by paying particular attention to its structure, objectivity and style.

The publication by Christina M. Gaudio is critical of the War on Drugs and focuses on its effects on juveniles. She takes time to outline the issues that are present with our current system, and specifically how the system is particularly unjust to juveniles. Gaudio details how the juvenile justice system operates state and federally, then she gives a brief history of the Drug War, the Drug Wars effect on Juveniles, its overall effectiveness, and possible solutions to what she sees as the problem.

This is a summary taken from “Saying Yes” by Jacob Sullum; Chapter 8; “Body and Soul”. An ever-present theme in Sullum’s book is what he calls “voodoo pharmacology”—the idea, promoted in large part by the government, that certain drugs have the power to hijack people and enslave them in an inescapable prison of craving and compulsion. Sullum seeks to show that this idea is a myth, that only a tiny percentage of illegal-drug users become addicts, whereas the vast majority of people who use illegal drugs live normal, productive, loving lives. The book is filled with valuable insights derived from deconstructing government statistics about drugs and drug use. Sullum shows how even the most vilified drugs, such as heroin and crack cocaine, are

Mexico has a drug problem that continues to grow. About three and a half years ago, Felipe Calderon was sworn in as president and immediately declared "war" on drugs.

The ability to be able to have so much power and influence over so many things that affect our lives is inconceivable. From simple activities of a normal daily life to how a country can run and how it may flourish, the effects that drug trafficking has grown to new heights. The war on drugs has long been a struggle in many different countries and goes across the entire world. While some countries have been able to limit the trafficking, others struggle to contain it and simply cannot stop it. Drug trafficking has a great power and influence over how many things function such as the economy, daily living, and politics, but could be combatted with different strategies such as legalisation.

Mexico has a weak judicial and police institution and a large economy with consumers. Mexico the hub of one of the world's most sophisticated drug networks. For decades, drug trafficking organizations used Mexico's entrenched political system to create a system-wide network of corruption that ensured distribution rights, market access, and even official government protection for drug traffickers. Officers could make an exchange for money to be able to let people pass by with the drugs or trafficking that they are participating in. This is a reason why the drug distribution is so big in Mexico. Harper

Provocative and eye-opening, The Stickup Kids urges us to explore the ravages of the drug trade through weaving history, biography, social structure, and drug market forces. It offers a revelatory explanation for drug market violence by masterfully uncovering the hidden social forces that produce violent and self-destructive individuals. Part memoir, part penetrating analysis, this book is engaging, personal, deeply informed, and entirely

Chapter 2 follows the corrupt justice system. Many people are brought into the justice system because of the War on Drugs without much thought of their guilt or innocence, police just so happened to “randomly” pull them over for a traffic stop because of their skin color. Convictions for drug offenses is the biggest cause of the explosion of incarnation rates in the United States.

The legalization of drugs has been at the center of interminable debate. Drugs have widely been perceived as a dominant threat to the moral fabric of society. Drug use has been attributed as the source responsible for a myriad of key issues. For instance, it is believed that drugs have exacerbated the already weak status of mental health in the United States in which some individuals suffering from mental illness administer illicit substances such as heroin or cocaine in an attempt to self-medicate. Moreover, drugs are blamed for turning auspicious members of the community into worthless degenerates. Thus, vast efforts have been made to regulate the alleged drug problem through various avenues. For example, programs have been created to steer

In his article, “Toward a Policy on Drugs,” Elliot Currie discusses “the magnitude and severity of our drug crisis” (para. 21), and how “no other country has anything resembling the American drug problem” (para. 21). The best way to describe America’s drug problem is that it is a hole continuously digs itself deeper. America’s drug issues were likely comparable to other country’s at one point in time, but today it can be blamed on the “street cultures” (para. 21) that continue to use and spread the use of illegal drugs. These street cultures transcend the common stereotype of drug users, such as low income communities in cities or welfare recipients, and can be found in every economic class and location. They are groups of people who have

Chapter two introduces the policy problems related to the War on Drugs, as well as other policies that banned or limited other use of alcohol and drugs. Authors start with the history of the regulations of mood altering substances that began in colonial times, and then it escalated with “The Father of Modern Drug Enforcement”, Dr. Hamilton Wright. President Roosevelt assigned him to be the first Opium Drug Commissioner of the United States. Dr. Wright saw drugs as a big problem, according to the text the drug prohibitions started with his opinions on limiting drug use. In 1906 the Pure Food and Drug Act was signed and required the labeling of the ingredients of the products. There were other acts signed after that period, first we had The Harrison

“A gram is better than a damn,” is a statement that reflects the mindset of contemporary America to use drugs to palliate the problems rather than dealing with them. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley shows the relationship of drug usage in the near future by alluding the use of drugs to the real world. Huxley creates a drug, soma, in his novel that makes a person who takes it instantly becomes tranquil. This drug is commonly used throughout the novel by giving an instant source of gratification and also is used to control the population. Huxley’s prediction of drug usage became a reality because both legal and illegal drugs are commonly used in contemporary society.

Upon reading Gore Vidals "Case for Legalizing Marijuana" one may wonder why drugs are not legal in the United States of America. Afterall, several valid reasonings were made throughout the article. There is a demand for drugs and many people are supplying them, while also making a small fortune. If drugs were made legal and sold for high prices, their market would decrease because many people would not be able to afford them. Most people involved in the drug world do not know the consequences of that which they consume. If drugs were labeled with the affects that they have, it is likely that people would turn away from them. However, it would be the users choice to continue drug use if they wished. People are simpily uneduacated about the realtites of drug use. Sometimes drugs can be benifical to ones health but they can also be deadly. If there was an open market for drugs and Americans’ were educated on the effects drugs can have on their bodies, the monopoly for drugs would rapidly decrease.

This course requires an examination of the addicted person in terms of the systems that they interact with. Through the use of the Ecological Systems Theory, an examination will be made of the facets and factors that affect various systems depicted in the film Traffic (2000).