I do not think the war on drugs is winnable for many reasons. One drugs are so embedded in to our culture that the demand for drugs will never go away. Unless the National Government wants to arrest every dumb teenager who tries drugs and any person who makes their families living off drugs then drugs will always be in our society. There is also the problem that drugs come from other countries, such as Mexico, that the United States can never cut themselves off from. Mexico is (physically as well as economically) attached to us, and unless the United States government wants to sever all ties with the corrupt Mexico government our country will never get away from the supply of drugs they offer.
I think a scene in this movie that is key to show that the war on drugs can not be won, is the breakfast scene where the witness, Eduardo Ruiz, is sitting with the DEA agents Ray Castro and Montel Gordon. Eduardo is obviously angry that he was arrested, but he is also angrier that he is being forced to rat out the drug cartel he works for. He has to testify against a business man in California who is being charged with drug trafficking from Mexico. His life is in danger, and later in this scene he dies because Catherine Zeta Jones’ character gets the drug cartel to kill him. In this scene Eduardo tells Ray and Montel that even though he is helping them bring down one drug trafficker in the United States, nothing will change because there will still be people demanding drugs and there will still be someone supplying it. He tells the DEA officers that even they are working for the cartel because everything is society is linked to drugs. By the DEA bringing down one cartel, they are just allowing the other one to become stronger and make more money and have more power, therefore even the US government is helping fund the drug trafficking between the US and Mexico. This is such a great example of how our society is connected with drugs. The business man in California has tons of money and is a good member of society, but he is doing illegal business and if he is ever put in jail his money, drug money, will not be going in to the economy and the economy will suffer. Everything is our lives is connected with drugs somehow, and that can not change unless radical, drastic measures are taken by the government.
The example you use is important in terms of the way that people in the drug pyramid give up others in order to cut a deal with the police. That problem, however does not necessarily relate to your argument that the war is not winnable.
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