Parker Traffic

The war on drugs is a war that, in my opinion, will never be won. The problem with this “war” is that it affects so many more people than just the drug user. On the individual, society, and political levels, we see exactly how this war is affecting every person involved.

The Wakefield story gives a perfect example. Caroline Wakefield is the daughter to judge Robert Wakefield. While her father has been assigned to step to the front lines of this war on drugs, she has fallen right in the middle of it. There are many scenes showing her doing drugs with her friends. The scene that really started her decline was when her friend overdoses. They try and drop the body off at the hospital but a police officer sees them. Later, in the Wakefield home, Caroline completely denies doing drugs. Yet, as time goes on, we see her getting worse. Her father places her and rehab but she runs away. Her parents wake up to find that some of their possessions are gone. They soon embark on a frantic search to find Caroline. This search leads them into the ghetto.

When Robert arrives in the ghetto, with Seth, he asks how he could ever bring his daughter into that kind of neighborhood. Seth tries to explain that the people who live in lower income neighborhoods are being preyed upon. These people don’t have high paying jobs that allow them to support themselves and their families. What they’re doing is whatever they can to make quick, easy money. Although selling drugs isn’t the most honorable job in the world, people are concerned about providing for their loved ones. Seth even goes on to say that if you put drugs in an upper class neighborhood, by the end of the week, every single person on that block would be also be selling drugs.

At the end of the movie, Robert goes on to talk about the war on drugs and how it involves fighting the people at the heart of it. Even if we don’t realize it, some people at the heart of it are our family members and our friends. How can anyone fight a war against someone they care about? You can’t. If we continue to fight this war on drugs, we will push away the people who truly need our help. We will push them so far away that this war will only get worse.