The case study was Mexico and cocaine, but it could have been any Latin American country and any illegal drug. We are left then with a US government that sincerely wants to end the drug traffic into the States but is unable to due to self serving Mexicans. Americans can leave their faith in their country intact and rest assured that the US really truly does want to stop illegal drugs. The complicity of US government officials and bankers is left remarkably untouched. This leaves much to be desired.
Drugs are the third largest industry coming only after food and electronics.
These untaxed profits go straight into the pockets of bankers and their private clients, and while politicans like G.W. Bush can smoke crack and become president, local vendors and street dealers, mostly black, end up in jail in ever increasing numbers with ridiculously harsh sentences. Former Drug Czar William Bennet even advocated beheading drug dealers. Despite the involement of major US Banks, without which the Drug flow would be impossible, Traffic is conspicuosly careful in remaining silent about the role of Banks and their allies in the government. Though half the film takes place in Mexico, Traffic also makes no mention of the sale and use of drugs by the CIA to fund dirty wars in the third world often against left wing movements as was the case in previous drug wars in Mexico, Guatamala, Bolivia and Argentina. The US backed Contras made millions from the sale of cocaine to the Medellin cartel in exchange for guns and there is little doubt that Oliver North, the Reagan administration's lackey, had full knowledge of this.