Just say know
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 7, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 USA Films Benicio Del Toro (left) and
Jacob Vargas star as Mexican policemen who get
caught in a web of corruption in Steven Soderbergh’s highly
acclaimed new film about the drug trade in North America,
"Traffic."
By Emilia Hwang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Stephen Gaghan has been interested in writing a screenplay about
drug trafficking, addiction and legislation for more than 20 years.
The writer originally set parts of “Traffic” in his
hometown of Louisville, Ky.
“It’s a town largely divided by class, where if you
were a poor person who got caught with marijuana, very different
things happened to you than if you were a rich kid who went to
Kentucky Country Day School, where I went,” Gaghan said in a
recent phone interview. “I noticed a lot of disparities in
the application of the law.”
“Traffic” presents a series of interrelated stories
that portray America’s war on drugs from various
perspectives. In the film, undercover DEA agents must work to build
a case against a powerful Mexican drug cartel, while Mexican
policeman Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) patrols the border to
stop drug flow from Mexico into the U.S.
Additionally, the newly appointed anti-drug czar (Michael
Douglas) has to fight the war on drugs from Washington, D.C., as
well as on the home front when his daughter’s experimentation
with drugs leads to addiction. Finally, Helena Ayala (Catherine
Zeta-Jones) is shocked by the arrest of her husband and quickly
finds out that their life together has been built on drug
money.
 USA Films Catherine Zeta-Jones stars as
Helena Ayala, an unknowing and pampered wife whose wealthy drug
baron husband is arrested in "Traffic." “I don’t think
it’s like any movie you’ve seen before,” said
producer Laura Bickford. “It’s, we like to say, an
upstairs-downstairs snapshot of how all the different worlds
intersect.”
The ensemble cast is quickly caught in a web of corruption.
Though each different characters’ story may seem familiar to
audiences, Bickford said that “Traffic” focuses more on
issues than individuals.
“Once the bad guy’s gone, the problem’s
over,” she said about other films. “But, this (movie)
is more about the system and the problems than the bad guy.
Everybody’s caught in this web.”
In addition to telling a intriguing story, Gaghan said he hopes
to pose questions about addiction as a disease and health care as a
solution.
“(In the film) we pull the dialogue on addiction and
addicts out of the criminal process and out of the dark corners and
bring it into the light,” he said. “I have had a lot of
experience watching people disappear down the rat hole of addiction
and I’ve thought for a long time that the war on drugs was
completely ineffectual, largely because even the smallest survey
reveals that after 20 years … there’s been a ten-fold
increase in the amount of money spent on the war on
drugs.”
According to Gaghan, the U.S. spent $2 billion, state and local
in addition to $2 billion, federal on the war on drugs in 1980, and
$20 billion, state and local $20 billion, federal in 2000.
“Forty billion dollars spent on the war on drugs and the
only thing that’s happened is that the price of hard drugs
““ coke, heroin ““ has dropped by about 75 percent, while
purity has gone up by about 75 percent,” he said.
The movie shows how the government’s efforts at drug
interdiction and criminalization have not been successful.
“Whatever we’ve been doing by spending $40 billion a
year has actually made it easier for the people to smuggle drugs
and get drugs,” he said.
With drugs more available now than before current drug
legislation, Gaghan proposes that the decriminalization of drugs
would be a more effective approach.
“It’s the only policy that has a chance of
working,” he said. “I think you have to take the profit
motive out of the business by making them, if not legal, not
illegal.”
Gaghan also said he thinks the sale of drugs should be taxed,
and the resulting money put into treatment programs.
“All the money spent on interdiction needs to be spent on
treatment,” he said. “All the money spent on trying to
stop Columbia from growing drugs ““ which is ludicrous ““
needs to be spent on treatment of our own addicts in the United
States of America.”
Ideally, people who get arrested for drug possession should not
go to jail, but go to rehabilitation, Gaghan said. Rehabilitation
centers should not be available only to the rich, but to every
single person who has a problem.
“I hope (the film) will open up a debate,” he said.
“Somewhere between now, when we spend $40 billion a year, and
20 years from now, when we’re spending $400 billion a year,
there’s going to be a change in our social policy. And I hope
this movie brings other voices into that debate, besides the
hypocrites like Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms and William
Bennett.”
In addition to the extensive research he has done on drug
addiction, the writer has experienced its impact first-hand.
“I had a lot of friends who, starting out as hard
drinkers, became hard drug users,” Gaghan said. “Some
of them have died.”
One of Gaghan’s closest friends died right before he
started shooting “Traffic.” He had named a character
who overdoses after him and respectfully changed the name as a
result.
According to Bickford, drugs is an issue that touches
everyone.
“Whether you like doing them or whether you’re
against doing them, they are a part of our world,” Bickford
said. “The movie’s a really good ride and story in a
lot of ways, but it comes out and it makes you think about what
we’re doing.”
FILM: “Traffic” is now playing in
theaters nationwide.
