The Business of Drugs: Why The US Drug War Can NEVER Be Won – Screen Rant

Why won't the U.S. ever win the war on drugs? Here's why America is complicit, according to the Netflix documentary series The Business of Drugs.

The United Stateswill never win the war on drugs because, according toThe Business of Drugs, a Netflixdocumentary series hosted by Amaryllis Fox, America is complicit in a distribution operationthat most people don't fully understand. The Business of Drugs doesn't identifyone specific reason why the U.S. drug war will fail, butdoes explain various factors that make it almost impossible to stop the worldwide distribution of drugs like cocaine, heroin, and meth, along with synthetics and opioids.

The Business of Drugs isn't focused solely on the U.S. drug war, and that thematic choiceconnects to America'sinability to prevent narcotics trafficking. Divided into six episodes, all of which prioritizesocietalrealitiesover societalcliches, the Netflix documentary series aims to educate streamers about the relationship between Digital Age economics andculture shifts. The Business of Drugs opens with Fox explaining her backstory, as she was raised by an economist and lived in various international locations before ultimately working as a CIA analyst for 10 years. She's the wife ofRobert F. Kennedy III and the inspiration for the upcoming Apple TV+ series starring Brie Larson.In The Business of Drugs, Fox travels the world and attempts to understand the motivating factors for drug producers and distributors.

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In the first episode of The Business of Drugs on Netflix, appropriately titled "Cocaine," Fox pieces together a narrative that ultimately connects to the United States drug war. She visits the Colombian port town Buenaventura, and learns thatthe only viable way to survive, at least for many locals, is to participate in cocaine production and distribution. The problem, however, is that a pyramid structure allows the most powerful figures to control rates that never really seem to change.Now, in 2020,the "value chain" allows Mexican drug cartels to sustain power through violence, with Sinaloa being the "gold standard" for the operation. Essentially, risk equals profitability, and cocaine demand from the United States means that many drug-hungry Americans inadvertently fund"a chain of human suffering," according to Fox. The Business of Drugs host also states that "Legalization may seem pretty extreme to most Americans, but as long as thedemand continues to climb, and the prices remain astronomically high became of no legal competition, I can't help wonder whether legalization and regulation is the only real option."

Fox digs deeper in The Business of Drugs episode about heroin, as she details how Kenya has become the new hub for international distribution. The host, who once lived in Africaas a child, admits that she doesn't correlate acity like Mombasa with heroin, andtherein lies the problem for the U.S. drug war. Methods of distribution continue to rapidly change in different parts of the world, andnarco-traffickers find new ways to exploit people working for them. According to Fox, "the real story lies in distribution." She states that the drug war involves fighting "darkness" and "evil," and that the war on drugs "has not made a dent." Overall, the Netflix documentary serieslinks American complicity to American naivete.

The Business of Drugs features a revelatory episode about meth production and distribution in Myanmar, with Fox reinforcing the idea thatTruly understanding the way things connect is the only we we can hope to change them." To her, it's seemingly impossible to prevent meth distribution if people don't know that Myanmar produces pills like McDonald's produces hamburgers. That's not a joke either, as one intervieweeconfirms.

As for synthetic drugs like MDMA, otherwise known as "Molly" or "Ecstasy," The Business of Drugs shows that America mostly correlates the drugs with clubs kids rather than with itstherapeutic potential, especiallyfor people suffering from PTSD. InThe Business of Drugs series finale on Netflix, Fox sums up the U.S. drug war problem by referencing "a terrible collision of circumstances." Regulations affects big business, big business affects politicians. Meanwhile, innovative drug distributors find new ways to deliver their product while manipulating rates and employees whoneed drug money to survive. The war on drugs isn't necessarily about good vs. bad, it's about information and power (among many other sociopolitical and economic factors).

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Q.V. Hough is a Screen Rant staff writer. He's also the founding editor at Vague Visages, and has contributed to RogerEbert.com and Fandor.

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