A quick montage cuts from this dream to its reality at a San Diego country club, where a very pregnant Catherine Zeta-Jones worries about cholesterol as she dines on duck l'orange. Taking leave of her society friends, she returns home to witness her wealthy and respected husband being taken away in handcuffs. Their lifestyle, it turns out, is supported by importing drugs. Soderbergh drives home the point that we've lost the drug war. By criminalizing drugs in 1916, America set itself up for today's nightmare.
Prohibition is almost always a cure worse than the disease.
Volstead's attempt to turn America dry in 1919 resulted in an unprecedented opportunity for criminals, who quickly organized themselves to keep the booze flowing to our republic's good citizens, providing themselves with enormous profits and unprecedented power. The more we prosecute drug dealers, the more lucrative we make their trade, encouraging others to spread the product. In one scene, a frustrated Wakefield hectors his staff for solutions, but they can only respond with embarrassed silence. This strains belief. But we get the point.