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
   [1]http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-1.[2]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
   [3]http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-2.[4]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
   [5]http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-3.[6]html.
   D. Eric Schansberg's review of DRUG POLICY AND THE DECLINE OF AMERICAN
   CITIES by Sam Staley (THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW, Winter 1998), at
   [7]http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-4.[8]html.
   For more writing from The Independent Institute on illicit drugs, see
   [9]http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-5.[10]html.

References

   1. http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-1.html
   2. http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-1.html
   3. http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-2.html
   4. http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-2.html
   5. http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-3.html
   6. http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-3.html
   7. http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-4.html
   8. http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-4.html
   9. http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-5.html
  10. http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-12-5.html