I was discouraged, not for the obvious reasons, but because I was afraid the majority of people who see it will probably miss the movie's point. Judging by some comments made by Charlotte's Mayor Pat McCrory recently, it turns out those fears were on the mark. What's even more interesting, though, is that the city's Chief of Police, Darrel Stephens, got it right.
Traffic is a starkly realistic portrayal of the whole drug scene, from start to finish.
People who live in squalor in other parts of the world produce the stuff, because it's their best, often their only, shot at making enough money to raise their pitiful standard of living. The thugs who distribute it have enough cash lying around to co-opt even the most dedicated law enforcement officials. People here buy and use the stuff, irrespective of their standing in society, for more reasons than we can count. At the end of a planning retreat earlier this month, the Mayor and Charlotte's City Council somehow got on the subject of drugs. But one thing I think is important for the council and the community is that you're not going to enforce your way out of the problem.