As of 2001 the DEA employed a workforce of over 4,500 special agents, out of a total of over 9,000 personnel, and operated with a budget of US$1.55 billion. It had 20 field divisions throughout the United States with at least one office located in every state, and maintained 78 offices in 46 countries. Compare this now to the illicit drug trade operating in the United States, with an estimated earning of $100 billion per year. The drug trade "employs" over 50 million Americans, most under the age of 24 years old, 99.9% of whom are of an ethnicity other than Caucasian and at the lower end of the socio-economic scale. Well at least that's what Hollywood would like you to believe.

It has been said that the illicit drug trade is one of overbearing proportions and that to control its flow would be like controlling the tide. Steven Soderbergh's film, "Traffic" is a bleak look at the...