Traffic

[Steve Schear]

AND THE OSCAR FOR BEST PICTURE ON GOVERNMENT FAILURE GOES TO..."

Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic" failed to win last night's Academy Award for 
Best Picture, but its sobering lessons about the War on Drugs make it 
Hollywood's most educational offering in years, explains economist Jeffrey 
Miron, research fellow at The Independent Institute, in an op-ed that 
appeared in yesterday's San Diego Union-Tribune, New Jersey Record, and the 
Orange County Register.

"Although 'Traffic' did not win the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year, 
writes Miron, "it deserves the title of Most Important Picture of the Year."

"Traffic" does not address all of the drug war's unintended consequences 
(no film could), but what it does address, it does so brilliantly. 
"Traffic" Miron argues, shows how drug prohibition causes the violence 
often attributed to drugs, corrupts government bureaucrats, enriches 
criminals at expense of the rest of society, and strains relations between 
races and nations. "Traffic" also shows why many law-enforcement agents 
come to believe that the drug war cannot be won.

Given the drug war's many casualties, the cultural impact of "Traffic" may 
come to surpass that of two other recent movies that bust the myth of good 
government, William Gazecki's shocking documentary, "Waco: The Rules of 
Engagement" (1997) -- which led to more Congressional hearings on the Waco 
raid -- and Barry Levinson's prescient tragicomedy, "Wag the Dog" (1997) -- 
whose title has become a catch phrase for presidential slights of hand 
conducted with military props. If so, then perhaps the United States will 
begin to wean itself from its destructive addiction to the drug war.

(Note: For TV viewers who didn't recognize former White House Drug Czar 
Barry McCaffrey in the audience at last night's Academy Award ceremonies, 
McCaffrey was the one wearing egg on his face.)

See "Traffic's Lessons" by Jeffrey A. Miron, at
http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-1.html.

Also see:
"The American Drug War: Anatomy of a Futile and Costly Policy Action" by 
Independent Institute Research Fellows Bruce L. Benson and David W. 
Rasmussen, at
http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-2.html.

Bruce L. Benson and David W. Rasmussen's article, "Predatory Public Finance 
and the Origins of the War on Drugs, 1984-1989" (THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW, 
1996), at
http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-3.html.

D. Eric Schansberg's review of DRUG POLICY AND THE DECLINE OF AMERICAN 
CITIES by Sam Staley (THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW, Winter 1998), at
http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-4.html.

For more writing from The Independent Institute on illicit drugs, see
http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-5.html.
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