International Journal of Drug Policy 13 (2002) 397 /407

www.elsevier.com/locate/drugpo

Media constructions of illegal drugs, users, and sellers: a closer look

at Traffic
Susan Boyd

Studies in Policy and Practice, Faculty of Human and Social Development, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada, V8W 2Y2

Accepted 30 April 2002

Abstract

This essay examines how the entertainment media constructs illegal drugs, users, and sellers. As well, it explores how television
and movie producers are awarded for depicting ‘correct’ images of illegal drugs, users and sellers. The second half of the paper
discusses the British made for television mini-series ‘Traffik’, and the later U.S. production ‘Traffic’. Six ‘war on drugs’ myths
depicted in the U.S. film ‘Traffic’ are examined with a focus on race, class, and gender issues.
# 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Media constructions; Illegal drugs; Traffic

Introduction This article looks at how the entertainment media

depicts illegal drugs, drug users, and sellers. The first
Since the mid-1800, media representations of drug section of the essay examines the construction of drug
users and traffickers in the US have centred on what is use and trafficking in US films and TV. The second
perceived as the ‘dangerous classes’ and racial minorities section looks at how the US government awards
as the ‘Other.’ Drug traffickers are constructed as magazines, and television and movie producers, for
‘outsiders’ that threaten the world order of white, faithfully maintaining and perpetuating drug war rheto-
middle-class protestant morality. They are depicted as ric. The third section examines the British made for
dangerous, out of control, and a threat to the nation, the television mini-series Traffik 1989 and the later US
family and white women’s morality. Thus, the ideologi- production Traffic 2000. In conclusion, six war on drugs
cal framework for future drug legislation and media myths depicted in the American film Traffic are
depictions of drug users and traffickers was realised explored by describing a snapshot from the film, and
early on. The white public viewed early drug legislation exploring inaccuracies and stereotypes, with a specific
as a justifiable tool to regulate identified racialised focus on race, class, and gender issues.
populations. Today’s war on drugs is characterised by Rather than film theory, this paper draws on cultural
the ‘routinisation of caricature’ which promotes worst criminology, which emerges out of ‘critical traditions in
case scenarios as the norm, sensationalises, and distorts sociology, criminology, and cultural studies’ (Ferrell &
drug issues in the media (Reinarman & Duskin, 1999). Websdale, 1999, p. 3). Cultural criminology is ‘a mode
Media representations of illegal drugs are often mor- of analysis that embodies sensitivities to image, mean-
alistic, and fuelled by race, class, and gender concerns. ing, and representation in the study of deviance, crime,
Illegal drugs are presented as so dangerous (without and control’ in films and popular culture (Ferrell &
providing any pharmacological evidence), that criminal Websdale, 1999, p. 3). For the purpose of this paper, I
justice control is considered ‘noble’ (Beyerstein & Had-
am referring to realist films that ‘focus primarily’ on
away, 1990).
illegal drugs, trafficking, and their consequences. These
films present ideas about pleasure, justice, the nature of

Tel.: /1-902-423-5224 addiction, morality, criminality, the drug user and
E-mail address: sboyd@stmarys.ca (S. Boyd). trafficker, and the effectiveness of the police, criminal
0955-3959/02/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 5 5 - 3 9 5 9 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 7 9 - 8
398 S. Boyd / International Journal of Drug Policy 13 (2002) 397 /407

justice, treatment and punishment. Such films as Mid- who succeeds against all odds, and gets his man or
night Express 1978, Drugstore Cowboy 1989, Trainspot- women. Today, media depictions of police brutality
ting 1996, Traffik 1989, and Traffic 2000, Blow 2001, against drug users and seller are the norm.
fall into this category. Thus comedies such as Cheech Movies are one public source of information about
and Chong’s Up In Smoke 1978, and documentaries crime, drugs, and the criminal justice system. Crime
such as Grass 2000 are excluded from the category films not only ‘mold our thoughts about the funda-
because they are not based on fictive realism. mental social, economic, and political issues of the day,’
Movies both reflect and shape popular culture; still, they ‘define the crime problem’ (Rafter, 2000: 62, 179).
movie viewers are not passive receptors, rather people Some films are obvious propaganda pieces that depict
‘negotiate their experiences according to their own the evils of drugs. The film Reefer Madness 1936 was an
histories’ (Boyd, 2002: 46). As well, media representa- attempt by Harry Anslinger and the US Federal Bureau
tions are not static, nor are the ideologies embedded in of Narcotics to ‘inform’ by frightening the public about
them. Ideology is significant in that it often succeeds in the horrors of marijuana use. The film vividly showed
maintaining and upholding the world as it is structured the horrors associated with marijuana use: where one
as fair, acceptable, and natural, when it is basically toke of a marijuana cigarette led to addiction, violent
unfair and corrupt (Cohen, 1985). Myth can be viewed crime and insanity. Today most audiences laugh when
as a descriptive term referring to assumptions, attitudes, they view Reefer Madness , however, when it was
and beliefs that constitute ideology (Rafter, 2000). produced it was viewed as an appropriate and serious
Myths appear natural and unproblematic, and they are vehicle for addressing marijuana use. Other films have
evident in both the narrative and imagery of Traffik and not been so blatant in their anti-drug message although,
Traffic . The ideologies and myths that we hold shape most films and TV programs about drugs, users, and
our world and may limit our imagination, making ‘other sellers, look to the criminal justice system, and lone
ways of interpreting the world unthinkable’ (Pfohl, renegade police and (DEA) officers for solutions. As
1994: 416). In addition, what is left unsaid in film is well, they tend to blame the individual, and highlight
just as important as the myths portrayed in them individualistic psychologically based solutions to drug
(Rafter, 2000). issues, rather than examining social, political, and legal
factors that shape drug use. The drug user is usually
portrayed as a person of colour who is driven by their
The construction of drug use and trafficking in films and addiction, out of control, and willing to do ‘anything’ in
TV order to obtain drugs.
The media’s most hateful depictions are reserved for
Today, knowledge is often transmitted through pic- the drug dealer/trafficker. Both the drug dealer and user
tures rather than the written word (Mathiesen, 2000). are depicted as ‘deranged or depraved’ (Alexander,
The emergence of film in the 1900s allowed for a much 1990: 33). However, with few exceptions, drug traffick-
wider public audience, especially given that literacy was ers are also viewed as evil, sadistic, immoral, greedy
not a requirement for gaining access to information. corrupt outsiders, who lure innocent youth, and draw
Surette (1992) claims that movies are the first ‘modern moral women into drug addiction and crime. The media
mass medium’ which has produced a mass culture that constructs them as guilty in the eyes of law enforcement
crosses ethnic, class and cultural (p. 25), as well as and society, and therefore, deserving of the brutal
gender and race lines. Although the emergence of TV in treatment handed out to them by criminal justice
the late 1940s succeeded in capturing a larger viewer vigilantes, family members of the victim, and justice
audience, movies continue to be popular and accessible seeking police officers. Drug sellers are routinely shot,
in theatres, at home on TV, and through video releases. and killed, in movies and TV shows before they can be
Cultural criminologists state that ‘‘in the process of arrested, or brought to court. In Hollywood, the drug
constructing crime and crime control as social and trafficker is most often portrayed as a black or Hispanic
political concerns, the media constructs them as en- man living in the inner-city in the US, and the ‘king pin’
tertaining’’ (Ferrell & Websdale, 1999, p. 11). who has even higher status, thus more evil intentions, is
In TV and cinema, drug use and selling, is a central usually represented as a Hispanic man from Mexico, or
theme. Media portrayals of crime, and drug use and South America.
selling, are more violent, and numerous, than in real life.
Greed, rather than poverty, is the most popular
motivation for drug selling, with young, white women Censorship and the entertainment industry
as the favourite crime victim (Surette, 1992). Equally
popular are supercops who take the law into their own The strange convergence of government, print media,
hands (Surette, 1992). The entertainment industry has and film is not necessarily new. The US government has
consistently, with few exceptions, celebrated the cop, always been in the business of censoring print, TV, and
 S. Boyd / International Journal of Drug Policy 13 (2002) 397 /407 399

movies. In 2000 it was revealed that the US government addiction portrays drugs as dangerous, and the drug
had spent over $1 billion dollars in a 5-year propaganda user as immoral, pathological, and out of control. The
effort to convince US citizens that its ‘tough war-on- authors of Spotlight claim that their views on drugs are
drugs policy’ is desirable. A portion of the money paid based on scientific data; however, there is no scientific
for anti-drug articles to be inserted in US and Canadian evidence to support biological or genetic explanations of
magazines (Saunders, 2000). US television networks that addiction (Peele & Brodsky, 1991).
write scripts with anti-drug messages are also rewarded Spotlight does not include a discussion of the criminal
with government advertising deals for accurately por- law or the criminal justice system. This is revealing since
traying drug issues. most of the drugs they examine are illegal in the US.
Since 1997, the National Institute on Drug Abuse Drug war ideology and the disease model of addiction
(NIDA), in partnership with the Entertainment Indus- incorporate the belief that illegal drug use impairs
tries Council (EIC), present the PRISM award each year morality. Thus, drug laws are viewed as justifiable.
to producers for accurately portraying drug issues in
their programs. They state that they are trying to
educate and encourage Hollywood to be more respon- Traffic and Traffik
sible in its portrayal of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use
(Vittala, 2000). In fact, if movie and TV script writers Keeping in mind that ‘there is no escape from the
wish to assure that their scripts will meet approval with politics of representation’ (Hall, 1993, p. 111), our
the US government, they can refer to Spotlight on attention will turn to drug movies, specifically the recent
depiction of health and social issues, published by the movies Traffik 1989 and Traffic 2000. Traffic was
Entertainment Industries Council, in collaboration with directed by Stephen Soderbergh, and went on to be
the National Institute on Drug Abuse and The Robert nominated for several academy awards, and came home
Wood Johnson Foundation, and sent to TV and film- with four of them in 2001. It was also the New York
makers in the US (EIC, NIDA, & TRWJF, 2000). The Film Critics choice for best film of the year, and received
authors state that, ‘‘The entertainment industry can five Golden Globe Awards. Some politicians, and the
make an enormous contribution in changing public US media have generally praised it for its accurate
perceptions about substance abuse and addiction. Its depiction of the war on drugs, in fact, a few politicians
products reach and influence millions, and incidents and actually participated in the movie (Cowan & Wren,
themes of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug use, abuse, 2001; Muwakkil, 2001).
and addiction are already commonly found in story- The American produced film Traffic , is roughly based
lines’’ (EIC, 2000: vii). Similarly, they note that ‘accu- on the earlier 1989 British mini-series Traffik , a three
rate depictions of drug abuse and addiction in part television series that was produced and first shown
entertainment productions can strongly counter public on Channel 4 Television. The script was written by
misperceptions’ (EIC, 2000: viii). The authors of Spot- Simon Moore and portrays the war on drugs from three
light claim that they draw solely from scientific under- different vantagepoints. Traffik also won a number of
standing of drug abuse and addiction. Although tobacco awards including the International Emmy and Broad-
and alcohol are discussed in Spotlight , there is no casting Press Guilds Awards. Because most US viewers
mention of the marketing of these products in television have not seen the British mini-series Traffik (in contrast
and film. to the US film Traffic ) I will describe part of it in some
The Entertainment Industries Council offers full detail. In the British mini-series Traffik , the viewer is
service from ‘script-to-screen’ guidance. Their depiction introduced to Fazal, a poor rural poppy grower in
selections for cocaine include inserting ‘occasional lines Pakistan, and his family; the UK’s Member of Parlia-
of dialogue with people reacting negatively to some- ment who is newly appointed to head the Drug Abuse
one’s’ cocaine use and other illegal drugs in order ‘to Committee, and his wife, and daughter who is addicted
cast a shadow’ on use, and they instruct screenwriters to to heroin; and a German drug dealer and his British wife
show that illegal drug use is very addictive (EIC, 2000: and children. The story is very complex juxtapositioning
12.1). Interestingly, there are no sociological, harm the plight of Fazal, and rural poppy growers limited
reduction, or drug user’s perspectives on drug use in choices in the face of a crop eradication program
Spotlight . Rather, the publication describes drug abuse supported by the UK that destroys their livelihood. It
and addiction as a biological, progressive, and perma- is shown that government representatives from Pakistan
nent disease; thus total abstinence is required. The are pressured by the UK to carry out crop eradication
authors state that drug addiction is a ‘. . .compulsion. programs in order to continue to receive aid. As well, the
Drug addicts have. . . lost their free will to decide viewer comes to understand that poor rural farmers
whether or not to use drugs’ (EIC, 2000: 1.1,10.3). have few acres and depleted soil to farm; thus poppies
They claim that ‘addicts find that only drugs can give are grown because it is easier and more profitable to
them pleasure’ (EIC, 2000: 10.3). The disease model of grow than sugar cane or other trade items. Growing
400 S. Boyd / International Journal of Drug Policy 13 (2002) 397 /407

poppies and smoking opium is depicted as different than tries smoking opium while in Pakistan) during the
heroin use. The ‘heroin’ problem is depicted as a western movie, the British drug czar is depicted stating, ‘‘we
construct, most specifically a British and American can’t limit supply; we can only limit the demand for it.
problem. The US is depicted as fuelling drug trafficking Long terms this means. . .producing a decent society that
in Pakistan through it’s demand and consumption of people want to live in, and not to escape from.’’ The
illegal drugs at home, and the CIA and DEA’s involve- potential of this speech is slightly lost when the script-
ment in financing ‘freedom fighters’ linked to the drug writer follows up this statement with the need for
trade and arms trading. continued support for criminal justice efforts. Never-
In order to survive when Pakistani soldiers burn his theless, the czar concludes, ‘‘we can’t police the world.’’
poppy fields, Fazal goes to Karachi to find work. There are several key differences between the US
Similar to his fellow countryman who move to the movie Traffic and the British mini-series Traffik . In the
city, he is unable to find employment. He eventually US movie, cocaine is the illegal drug being used, and
finds employment with a ruthless Karachi trafficker sold, rather than heroin. The US version does not
named Tariq who converts opium to heroin and sells it include the story of the rural farmer and family, rather
to western dealers. Fazal is eventually arrested for the three stories intertwined in the US film include: a
transporting drugs and is imprisoned. His wife agrees Latino American drug dealer named Carlos, his preg-
to transport heroin into the UK, on the condition that nant wife and child; the DEA, specifically two male
Tariq will help her husband. However, she dies right agents, one black, and one Hispanic, and the Mexican
after arriving at the airport in the UK; poisoned by the police, focusing on an honest cop, and a corrupt general;
heroin she has ingested. Her husband is eventually and the newly appointed drug czar, his wife, and
released from prison, and he avenges her death by daughter Carolyn, who is depicted as descending into
injecting heroin into Tariq’s neck. crack addiction. Mexico is represented as the cocaine
Traffik refers to the history of the Afghanistan war supplier for the US, rather than Pakistan and the opium
against the Soviet Union. During this period, the US (heroin) supplier.
funded CIA covert operations that supported and Even though many have lauded the US film Traffic as
protected drug traffickers in Pakistan and Afghanistan a breakthrough and a radical departure from the war on
(McCoy, 1991). Backed by US funding the Pakistan drugs stance, the following discussion will explore the
border was opened to accommodate the CIA, and many faulty myths about drugs, drug use, and selling,
millions of Afghan refugees during the war. From represented in the US film Traffic . For embedded in
1979 to 1989 the Pakistan military controlled $2 billion Traffic , as in any film about crime and justice, are
in CIA covert aid, and arms, which they distributed to ‘ideological messages. . .about the nature of reality’
Afghan guerrillas during the war. The aid also sup- (Rafter, 2000: 7).
ported training camps for Afghan guerrillas run by the
Pakistan military (McCoy, 1991: 451). It was here that
many Afghan men first came into contact with Taliban Myth 1: there are observable differences in people who use
fundamentalist Islamic beliefs. After 10 years of war illegal drugs and addiction is a disease
against the Soviets, and CIA covert funds, Afghanistan
guerrillas and the Pakistan military emerged as profi- The US czar’s young daughter is introduced as an
cient drug traffickers. innocent, white, blue eyed, blond, high school student in
In the 1970s heroin use was not a significant problem private school uniform, the media’s favourite type of
in Pakistan; however by the 1980s that would change, as victim. She is physically transformed after smoking
more people became addicted. McCoy (1991) notes that crack, she leans against the wall sweating, eyes rolling,
the heroin trade flourished during the war even though disorientated, as the drug czar, her father, searches her
17 DEA agents were stationed at the US embassy in room for drug paraphernalia. Finding evidence of her
Islamabad, and during that time there was never one crack use, he sends her to a residential drug treatment
major drug arrest. In fact, ‘heroin was shipped out in the centre. At the treatment centre, a man speaks about his
same Pakistani army trucks that brought in covert US ‘powerlessness over alcohol, my disease says I don’t
aid to the Afghan guerrillas’ (Scott & Marshall, 1998: have a disease. It’s a disease, allergy of the body and
187). The US ignored the drug trade and the rise of the obsession of the mind.’ At the end of the movie, the
Taliban as it served their own political purposes to limit viewer witnesses the drug czar, his wife, and daughter
Soviet expansion at the time. Once the Soviets were Carolyn, at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting where she
expelled from Afghanistan, and civil war broke out, the admits that she is an ‘addict.’
US refused to help. One’s physical appearance does not radically change
The mini-series Traffik ends on an interesting note. after inhaling crack, and as discussed earlier, there is no
Due to his daughter’s drug addiction, and his own substantial evidence to support a biological disease
personal and professional transformation (he actually mechanism that accounts for addiction. In contrast to
 S. Boyd / International Journal of Drug Policy 13 (2002) 397 /407 401

the disease model of addiction and conventional re- pales next to alcohol consumption (23.1 and 51%,
search on drugs, critic’s state that people have a wide respectively) (United States Department of Justice,
range of experiences with drugs, from positive to 2000: 1).
negative. Most people use drugs recreationally, and
are able to maintain positive relationship without the
fear of escalating or negative use (O’Hare, 1982). It is Myth 3: crack use equals hyper-sexuality in women
not the drug itself, but our relationships with specific
drugs that shape patterns of use. In the film Carolyn’s school friend Seth introduces her
Harm reduction, which focuses on minimising harm to cocaine. After she free-bases cocaine with him, a tear
that drugs can cause the user and society, supports roles down her cheek and she welcomes his sexual
‘controlled’ drug use education and other user friendly advances. Later he takes her to a black inner-city
pragmatic programs such as needle exchange and neighbourhood where he rents a room in a seedy
maintenance programs. These unmoralistic pragmatic looking hotel. While lying in bed fully clothed they
interventions are not explored in Traffic , nor is the fact smoke crack together. He says to her ‘‘I want to have
that conventional treatment can be quite punitive. sex, do a hit as were both coming.’’ She replies softly,
Neither are drug users and drug users unions, who ‘‘ok.’’
view themselves differently from Carolyn and her drug Some academics, the press, and the entertainment
treatment cohorts, represented in the film. The social, industry have sensationalised hyper-sexuality and ex-
political, and economic factors that shape drug use, and changes of sex for crack. Crack is not the first drug, nor
fuel the war on drugs, are ignored and the hegemonic the first commodity that women have exchanged sex for.
view that ‘addiction’ is an individual pathology, a Although women are most vulnerable to poverty and
disease that requires abstinence, is maintained in the male violence and have historically exchanged sex for
film. commodities in patriarchal societies where unequal
gender inequality prevails, men also exchange sex for
drugs, but we hear little about this phenomenon.
Myth 2: crack is instantly addicting and leads to a deviant In contrast to the myth of the crack-whore and female
lifestyle hyper-sexuality, Macdonald, Waldorf, Reinarman and
Murphy (1988) study of 228 heavy users of cocaine in
In contrast to the images in the film Traffic , crack is the US demonstrated the diversity of sexual responses to
not instantly addicting, nor does it lead to a deviant or cocaine use. Men reported more sexual enhancement
dangerous lifestyle; rather people have a wide range of from cocaine than women did. However, they reported
responses to crack, and powder cocaine, and there is no the heavier the cocaine use, the more negative the
uniform progression of use. The majority of cocaine impacts on one’s sex life. Rosenbaum, Murphy, Irwin
users are successful in maintaining unproblematic and and Watson (1990) also found that crack use lowers
controlled use (Waldorf, Reinarman & Murphy, 1991). sexual desire in women. In fact, most people become
Cocaine can be toxic when used in large quantities, and sexually dysfunctional when they use cocaine heavily.
can even present harms when used in small quantities, Bourgois (1995) states that the myth of the aphrodisia-
but overall most users will not experience any serious cal powers of crack is maintained and perpetuated by
harm related to their cocaine use nor participate in other ‘journalists, social scientists, dealers, and addicts them-
criminal activities (Morgan & Zimmer, 1997). Cocaine selves’ (p. 280). The participants in Rosenbaum et al.
related deaths have been misrepresented in the media (1990) study claimed that male researchers have tended
(Wong & Alexander, 1991). Contrary to media reports to exaggerate the importance of sex in their studies.
about cocaine addiction, cocaine is not physically
addictive, though a small minority of people have been
psychologically addicted to the drug (Morgan & Zim- Myth 4: black men lure white girls into addiction and
mer, 1997). sexual corruption
Only a small minority of people use crack in the US.
Nevertheless, in the film Traffic Carolyn is depicted The film Traffic chronicles Carolyn’s descent into
speaking to her drug treatment group saying, ‘‘it is crack addiction and her flight to the black inner-city.
easier to get drugs than alcohol’’ for her age group. In The film includes a voyeuristic scene of a black man
fact, US youths are overwhelmingly involved with having sex as the camera quickly focuses in on Carolyn’s
alcohol use rather than cocaine use. When high school body underneath his. The movie viewer is presented with
seniors are asked which drugs they consumed in the last a clear picture of his naked body (no one else in the film
month, 51% state alcohol and 2.5% state cocaine, and is shown naked) as he walks away to conduct a drug
college students give similar replies. Marijuana is the transaction. When the black man returns to the bed-
illegal drug of choice for youths; nevertheless, its use room he finds Carolyn going through the satchel of
402 S. Boyd / International Journal of Drug Policy 13 (2002) 397 /407

drugs and hypodermic needles. He asks her, ‘‘Want to 62.7% of prisoners sentenced for drug offences (Beatty,
do that’’? In the next scene he is shown injecting cocaine Holman & Schiraldi, 2000: 2). We can see how race
into a vein in her foot. Afterwards, she lies back in the comes into play in the enactment of the Anti-Drug
bed, and he leans over and resumes having sex with her. Abuse Act of 1986. From 1992 to 1994, roughly 96.5%
The message in Traffic is very clear. In class based, of all federal prosecutions for crack offences in the US
sexist, white supremacist America, a white girl’s down- were of non-whites (Weich & Angula, 2000: 13). Black
fall and degradation is constructed as addiction and men are almost seven times more likely than white men
sexual corruption at the hands of a black man. Similar to be imprisoned in federal and state prisons (United
to earlier racist stereotypes constructed by the media, States Department of Justice, 1999: 9, 11). Since 1995, it
white girls are depicted as both passive and vulnerable. is estimated that 35% of all black males aged 25 /35 are
The myth of the black rapist served to legitimise moving through the criminal justice system as prisoners,
lynching black males after slavery ended in the US, paroles or probationers (Drucker, 1999). Police profiling
and the criminal image of the black male ‘is continu- of the poor, and men and women of colour is having a
ously evoked today to perpetuate the dominant societies devastating impact on families and communities
continued fear and subjugation of African Americans’ throughout the US.
(Rome, 2002, p. 71). The construction of the criminal The war on drugs in the US has contributed to not
black man also serves to deflects attention away from only staggering arrest rates for the poor, and Hispanic
white men’s legal ownership and sexual exploitation of and black people, but increased drug trade, violence,
black women’s bodies during slavery and their contin- AIDS, and drug overdose related deaths. More then two
ued vulnerability today (Hooks, 1981). The legacy of million adults are in prison in US, and a large
slavery, and later legal, social, and geographical segre- percentage of these prisoners are non-violent drug
gation, economic marginalisation, institutionalised ra- offenders (United States Department of Justice, 1999:
cism, police profiling and carceral apartheid are not 3). Contrary to propaganda about arresting the ‘king
explored in the film, leaving intact the myth of the black pin,’ 80% of arrests in the US are for possession and
criminal. 45% are for marijuana (Beatty et al., 2000: 1).
A later scene where an older white man is depicted as Most people in inner-city neighbourhoods do not use
attempting to sexually exploit Carolyn (similar to or sell illegal drugs; however for some, drug selling is
Traffik ’s) is given little play since the worse degradation one response to structural economic marginalisation,
has already occurred when she sexually transgressed sexism, and racism that keeps minorities out of the
both her class, and race. legitimate labour market (Bourgois, 1995). Most people
(of all classes) do not set out to become a drug dealer,
rather they ‘drift’ into selling drugs in order to get a
Myth 5: only black and Latino men deal illegal drugs in better deal, or better quality drugs (Waldorf et al.,
the US, and drug ‘king pins’ and cartels are led by 1991). Traffic does attempt to demonstrate that upper-
Mexican men who are cruel, sadistic, and greedy class people are active in high-level drug dealing in
America. However, this message is limited because
Later in the film Traffic the drug czar’s daughter Carlos is Latino, the media’s favourite drug trafficker,
Carolyn leaves drug treatment and heads straight for the and we learn that his class status was achieved through
black-inner city. We are informed by the scriptwriters criminal activity. We come to understand that Carlos’
that white girls who fall from grace can only get drugs wife will go to great lengths to protect their way of life.
from black dealers in the inner-city, rather than from The film maintains the myth of ‘foreign’ drug traffick-
dealers in their own upper-class neighbourhoods. How- ers, source countries, and cartel ideology remains intact.
ever, there is little evidence that youths buy drugs from In Traffic , Mexican cartels are constructed as all
people outside of their own race, and their own powerful, and ‘taking them down’ is represented as
neighbourhoods (Mauer, 1999; Riley, 1997). Contrary symbolic of US power.
to stereotypes, white people are active in the illegal drug Contrary to the message in Traffic , drug cartels are
trade, and so are middle-and-upper-class people (Boyd, more myth than reality. ‘High level dealing is more
1999; Morgan & Joe, 1997; Waldorf et al., 1991). Race commonly done by individuals, couples or loose net-
profiling by the police, three-strikes out laws, conspiracy works,’ that are fluid (Dorn & South, 1993). Foreign
laws, and more severe penalties for crack /cocaine than cartels have never solely controlled the cocaine market,
powder cocaine, contributes to the high rates of arrest evidenced by the fact that cocaine prices have been
and conviction of black and Latino men in the US for declining in the US since the 1970s (Woodiwess, 2001:
drug offences. Although black people make up only 387). Governments could easily stop the illegal drug
about 13% of drug users in the US (there are five times trade if it was controlled by a few cartels, for once the
as many white drug users), and have similar drug use leaders were eliminated the market would crash. Cartel
rates as white people, black people comprise about theories, similar to organised crime and mafia conspi-
 S. Boyd / International Journal of Drug Policy 13 (2002) 397 /407 403

racy theory masks the fact that governments, corpora- domestic instability and corruption in Mexico. Similar
tions, professionals, and respectable business institu- to the war on drugs at home, it is the poor that suffer in
tions are involved in the illegal drug trade and organised Mexico. Foreign debt, and trade agreements, with the
criminal activity (Woodiwess, 2001). Woodiwess (2001) US has limited reform efforts in Mexico. Since the
states that in the US organised crime activity is not a signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement
foreign import, or run by groups outside of American (NAFTA) in 1994 poverty has been rising, jobs are more
life, nor is it a serious threat, because it compliments scarce, and wages are declining while a small sector of
both the economic and political structure. As well, the Mexican society is getting richer and foreign investors
Americanisation of drug law globally (see Nadelmann, are prospering (Chomsky, 2000: 99, 207). Chomsky and
1993) which has been achieved through international others have also noted the war on drugs is one way to
treaties, aid, and pressure encourages drug-related halt any democratic peasant movement that threatens
criminal activity in and outside of the US. US capitalist interests (Naiman, 1996). However, in the
The racist imagery of black and Mexican people in film Traffic , NAFTA is only depicted as opening the
Traffic is startling. Mexico is depicted as barbaric and US /Mexican border, fuelling a ‘free for all’ for foreign
uncivilised, where life is cheap, and the military and cartels that must be contained.
police are violent, corrupt and involved in drug traffick- Since US interventions are not explored to any extent
ing. The authorities (who are drug dealers) are ruthless in the film Traffic we are left to believe that greed,
and sadistic (evidenced by a torture scene). There is no corruption, and violence are inherent to Mexican
examination of the negative racial stereotypes presented authorities and cartels that threaten US citizen’s safety.
in the film, and how these images have served to justify The audience is informed that ‘in Mexico law enforce-
US intervention in Mexico since the Mexican /American ment is an entrepreneurial activity’ in contrast to the
War. Mexican, and men of colour have historically been US. Protecting the borders of the US from the ‘drug
constructed by US filmmakers as ‘sinister and evil’ threat’ is viewed by the US government as a top priority
(Castro, 2002). Since the late 1950s, Mexican men have in the war on drugs. Guarding the US border means
been depicted in Hollywood films as dangerous drug controlling drug policy in foreign nation states that are
pushing monsters who commit terrible criminal acts viewed as ‘drug-source’ countries. In the US national
against innocent white people (Castro, 2002). These drug control strategy: 2001 annual report Mexico is
negative media constructions serve as tools to justify US represented as a key drug-source country (Office of
intervention in Mexico, race profiling, criminalisation, National Drug Control Policy, 2001). US citizens are
and subjugation at home. instructed that the war on drugs is being waged in
Unlike the British version Traffik , the American ‘foreign’ countries now, rather than waged against US
version of Traffic centres on the relationship between citizens. But the truth of the matter is that the war on
an ‘honest’ Mexican police officer and the American drugs is fought on many fronts, at home, and abroad.
DEA. We see the world of drug trafficking through their Yet, the myth that the enemy (the trafficker) resides
eyes, rather than through the eyes of the rural farmers as outside of the US, and that foreign military and police
in the British version. No mention is made of CIA are corrupt and incompetent, which justifies interven-
involvement in drug trafficking, the more than six tion, is reinforced in the film Traffic . Focus on supplier
million adults moving through the criminal justice countries also distracts attention from US’s production
system in the US (in prison, probation and parole), of illegal drugs, its appetite for them, and police
and state regulation and punishment of the poor, black, corruption at home.
and Hispanic communities in and outside of the US. On the home front, policing drugs is depicted as
Traffic offers no analysis of how by providing aid to dangerous work. Interestingly, the two DEA officers in
the police and military to fight the war on drugs, rather the movie are black and Latino which deflects attention
than contributing substantial social and economic aid, from the fact that black and Latino men and women are
the US contributes to violence and instability in Mexico most vulnerable to drug arrests and imprisonment in the
and other nations. Nor is there a consideration of the US even though their drug rate use is no higher than
US certification process, military operations, crop white people. Law-enforcement agents in western na-
eradication programs, and chemical warfare (such as tions often claim that they daily face risks to their lives
using paraquaqt on marijuana and opium fields in in defending innocent citizens against criminal activity
Mexico in 1969). These programs have been a dismal (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2001), and in
failure and cause immense suffering outside the US Traffic the DEA agents are constructed as honest and
(Bullington, 1993; Naiman, 1996). Poppy and coca heroic, in contrast to their corrupt Mexican counter-
plants are grown because they are profitable and for parts. The media daily tells us that policing is a
the masses of people who live below the poverty line, dangerous job. This is reinforced in Traffic when the
there are few other options in a global economic system Latino DEA officer is killed in a car bombing set up by
that favours US interests. Thus, the war on drugs fuels the American dealer’s wife. Not to make less of any loss
404 S. Boyd / International Journal of Drug Policy 13 (2002) 397 /407

of life or injury that occurs on the job, but occupations attempts to go on a vacation with him and to have sex.
such as ‘mining, construction, transportation, and She is no longer interested and she has no time for these
agriculture’ are much more dangerous jobs than policing more domestic activities. Her only interest is setting up
(Kappeler, Blumberg & Potter, 1996: 216). the next drug deal. Both women in Traffic and Traffik
Both the British mini-series Traffik and the US film are portrayed as murderous, cunning and ruthless. In
Traffic depict the lone enforcement agent. In the US contrast, outside of film depictions, women are most
version it is the black DEA officer, who risks his safety often victims of male violence, rather than the perpe-
by illegally planting a ‘bug’ in Carlos’ home after he is tuator of violence (Chesney-Lind & Bloom, 1997; Faith,
acquitted of drug trafficking. Conventional myths about 1993). Although women are involved in the higher
the futility of the legal process, and the integrity of the echelons of drug dealing (Morgan & Joe, 1997), most
lone cop who heroically performs illegal acts to lock up often they have little access to such power, which reflects
drug dealers are maintained; for it is made clear that no the social and economic conditions of their lives. Drug
matter what the odds against him, he ‘will get his man’ mules, accurately depicted in the British series Traffik ,
and his revenge. The drug trafficker is demonised, which are often poor women of colour who are very vulnerable
legitimises DEA coercion, illegal practices, and appeals to arrest. In the US, women’s incarceration has in-
for more power. creased at a faster rate than men’s over the last decade,
and this increase is due to sentencing for drug offences;
today one in three women are serving time in prisons for
Myth 6: female drug dealers are more deviant than their a drug offence (Amnesty International, 1999). The
male partners are majority of these prisoners are women of colour.
Feminist writers have drawn our attention to how
Although the two movies, Traffik and Traffic , are women in conflict with the law are depicted in film
substantially different from one another, they both (Birch, 1994; Chesney-Lind, 1999; Clover, 1999; Faith,
portray ‘king pin’ traffickers as sadistic, cruel, and 1993; Hart, 1994; Thornham, 1999). Faith (1993) notes
insatiable. As well, in both movies, the women married that real women’s voices are rarely heard in Hollywood
to drug dealers are depicted as capable of more evil than films. White women, especially daughters, are often
their male counterparts. In order to maintain their rich portrayed as the hapless victim, led astray by men into
lifestyle, and to free their husbands from the criminal addiction and crime, but women of colour are con-
justice system, both wives transgress the law and structed as more masculine and rarely as worth saving
conventional gender roles by being depicted as callous, (Rafter, 1990: 143). Women are also portrayed as not
and scheming, and eventually planning and carrying out being what they really are, their crime is hidden from
drug trafficking, and murder. In the US film Traffic , the view and later revealed; they are constructed as un-
assassin (hired by the wife) who is depicted as a predictable and unmanageable (Mills, 1999). Mothers
psychopathic gay man, represents America’s pathologis- who use drugs are depicted as even more evil because it
ing of homosexuality. It is assumed that being gay is wrongly assumed that their ‘compulsion’ to use drugs
equals participating in other deviant, and violent acts. supersedes their mothering instinct (Boyd, 1999). Non-
The American drug dealer’s wife is portrayed as drug using pregnant women and mothers of young
devious. While maintaining an image of maternal (she children are also viewed as dangerous and out of
is visibly pregnant), wifely innocence to the police, she control-ruled by their biology. In both films daughters
drives across the Mexican /American border to find her are depicted as passive and mothers as aggressive and
husband’s cocaine connection and starts up business dangerous.
again. When the Mexican dealer suggests she sample the
cocaine or there is no deal, she vehemently states she’s
pregnant, thus sending the ‘correct’ message to the Conclusion
audience; nevertheless, she is represented as having no
moral qualms about arranging for the murder of the The British film Traffik successfully explores how
informant who will testify against her husband in western drug policy and the denial of aid impact third
criminal court. The message is loud and clear. Women world countries if policy is not initiated or successful.
married to drug dealers are complicit and more danger- Throughout the British mini-series an attempt is made
ous than their husbands are even though they appear to demonstrate how the war on drugs shapes interna-
innocent. tional relations, domestic policy, communities, and
The British mini-series Traffik is just as problematic families. We witness the uselessness of crop eradication
in its depiction of the wife of the German drug programs, and how growing poppies, and opium itself,
trafficker, for after her husband is arrested she also are integral to Pakistani society, and that using heroin
resumes business and plans the murder of the state on the streets, and in the homes, of London is quite
informant. When her husband is released she resists his different from smoking, and drinking, opium tea. The
 S. Boyd / International Journal of Drug Policy 13 (2002) 397 /407 405

film emphasises the western world’s unquenchable thirst nation, which justifies continued US criminal justice
for drugs and the failure of the war on drugs. Illegal intervention. The ‘new’ female drug dealer is depicted as
drug use is viewed as a western problem, not the more ruthless than her male counterparts, and passive
problem of Pakistan, but one that is changing the shape daughters are victims corrupted and led astray by
of drug use, and the economy in Pakistan. ‘outsiders’ to white middle-class America.
It is difficult to assess whether the story presented in Traffic ignores the experience of poor rural farmers
Traffik would be different if it was produced in Britain who grow coca and other criminalised crops, and who
today. It is over 10 years since the mini-series was first are coerced into the role of drug mule. It never seriously
shown on British television and the differences between explores who the drug dealer is. Nor does the film ask
the two productions may be due to temporal trends. As why specific drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and
well, differences in British and US drug policy and heroin are illegal and demonised in the US, rather than
culture may have shaped the two productions. Crime tobacco and alcohol which are our most toxic drugs.
control has always been a central feature of British drug Instead illegal drug use is sexualised, racialised and
policy, and it has historically been heavily influenced by pathologised, and the poor are viewed as supplying the
the US (MacGregor, 1998). Nevertheless, Britain is still rich with their drug of choice. An alternative view would
perceived as a nation that offers public health and harm have been to portray drug use and selling as shaped by
reduction initiatives rather than just crime control. political, legal, social and cultural factors. A radical
Activists and drug workers in North America continue view would have explored how the war on drugs serves
to view Britain as having more practical and less US imperialist and economic interests, and fuels race,
moralistic drug policy. British drug policy does not class, and gender inequality and oppression in and
resemble ‘the disastrous control regime pursued in the outside of the US. Nevertheless, in honour of Traffic ’s
USA’ (South, 1998, p. 90). However, critics note that ‘accurate depiction’ of drug use it received a PRISM
drug policy has turned from past public health practices award for best theatrical feature film in 2001.
due to Thatcher’s ‘get tough on crime’ mandate, and The US does not stand alone in its drug policy, still
more recently under the leadership of Tony Blair and today no other nation in the world has equal economic
the Labour party. Since 1997 there has been a shift away and political power. Thus US drug policy and views on
from public health policy to linking drugs with crime criminal justice carry a lot of weight. The threat of
(Stimson, 2000). Repeatedly, Blair has supported the sanctions and denial of foreign aid can limit other
war on drugs, and uses drug war language like menace, nation’s autonomy. So can drug war (and war on
threat, and scourge linking drugs with crime, and family terrorism) rhetoric that constructs all those opposed to
and community breakdown. US policy as the enemy. This is both sad and ironic
Also the war on terrorism continues to shape drug given that the US has the highest official crime rate and
policy. Opium poppy production and trafficking in prison population of any other western nation, and a
Afghanistan is being linked to terrorist groups and significant proportion are non-violent drug offenders.
domestic consumers, even though advocates of the war Unfortunately, the Americanisation of the mass media
acknowledge that the Taliban later sought to limit and drug law throughout the world contributes to a lack
poppy production and there is evidence that the North- of alternative views about drug use, and responses to it.
ern Alliance is complicit in production and trafficking TV, and US films, often present drug issues in a
(Meek, 2001). Both US and British politicians, and the ‘simplistic, nonsubstantial, nonhistorical, and noncon-
public, appear to have forgotten the role of the CIA in texual’ way, and foremost, information is ‘packaged as
Pakistan, and its impact on the rise of the Taliban. entertainment’ (Postman, 1986: 141).
Nevertheless, the American version Traffic is very Films can both reflect conventional ideologies about
different than Traffik . Although the American film has drug issues and challenge them. However, films that
been praised for its accurate depiction of the war on challenge the very foundations of drug policy including
drugs and its questioning of waging ‘war on your structural inequality, foreign and domestic economic
family,’ it also leaves intact and perpetuates many myths policy, and punishment industries, are rare. The medium
that serve to fuel punitive policy and race, class, and of film is limited due to its duel role as a source of
gender inequality. For example, western drug use is entertainment, and profit. Nevertheless, there has al-
viewed as pathological, a disease that must be treated, ways been resistance to drug war ideology and punitive
and no alternative views of drug use are offered in the drug policy, and occasionally films depict these acts of
film. We never witness recreational, spiritual, or medical rebellion. Ideologies about drugs and social life are not
use of illegal drugs, or addiction that is normalised fixed, and movie viewers are not passive receptors.
rather than pathologised. We are left with the image that Rather ideologies are continuously being negotiated in
‘foreign’ cartels are all powerful and non-white drug real life and on film. Cultural criminologists recognise
dealers are greedy, and violent. These ‘outsiders’ are that deviance, crime, and control are social construc-
constructed as a threat to morality, the family, and the tions, so to are responses to them. Film is one of many
406 S. Boyd / International Journal of Drug Policy 13 (2002) 397 /407

mediums that communicates ideological messages about Drucker, E. (1999). Drug prohibition and public health: 25 years of
evidence. The Drug Policy Letter 40 , 4 /18.
drugs, crime, and justice. In the future we may have a
Entertainment Industries Council in partnership with The National
resurgence of films which are both pleasurable to view Institute on Drug Abuse and The Robert Wood Johnson Founda-
and serve as a ‘counterpunch to the belly of authority’ tion (2000). Spotlight on depiction of health and social issues: drug,
(Ferrell, 1997: 146). Such films will serve as a template alcohol, and tobacco use and addiction, vol. 1 (3rd ed.). USA:
to shift our understanding about drug issues to one Entertainment Industries Council.
where altered states of consciousness are no longer Faith, K. (1993). Unruly women: the politics of confinement and
resistance . Vancouver: Press Gang.
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