Pubdate: Mon, 19 Mar 2001
Source: CNN (US Web)
Copyright: 2001 Cable News Network, Inc.
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Author: Paul Vercammen, CNN Showbiz Today Reports
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/traffic.htm (Traffic)

FROM THE FRONT LINES OF THE DRUG WAR

Dea Agent: Traffic Will Slow With Education

Editor's note: The drug issue is a multifaceted one, as the film "Traffic" 
illustrates so vividly. Following is the opinion of one foot soldier in the 
international drug wars.

(CNN) -- The Oscar-nominated film "Traffic" weaves together diverse stories 
about the war against drugs. One tale, featuring federal Drug Enforcement 
Administration agents trying to keep drugs out of the United States, gives 
viewers a from-the-trenches look.

Before he shot a single frame, director Steven Soderbergh and members of 
his production team interviewed Special Agent Vince Rice, a 10-year veteran 
of the DEA who works in San Diego, California.

Rice recently spoke with CNN his insights about drug trafficking and the 
movie that portrays it.

CNN: How do you rate "Traffic"?

Special Agent Vince Rice: I rate the movie a B-plus. I think it was done 
very well. The stories are accurate; the story line is accurate. ... What 
it did was, it really gave you the feel of being out there on the 
surveillance, or doing the case.

CNN: There are so many miles of U.S. border to cover. How difficult does 
this make your job?

Rice: It makes it almost impossible, because there's almost 2,000 miles of 
border. We're talking about the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico; to 
actually monitor all of it is a futile attempt. We're doing the best we 
can, of course.

We have a lot of illegal traffic passing into the boundaries in the United 
States where there are no roads. They're using four-wheel-drive vehicles, 
they're doing it on foot, they're packing it in using horses -- all types 
of different things. Sometimes they actually swallow the balloons of heroin 
and walk it across the port of entry.

CNN: "Traffic" depicted children who had everything. They, too, were 
tempted by drugs.

Rice: What it comes down to is, parents need to talk to their children 
about drug abuse and drug addiction, and I think a lot of times they don't. 
Good kids, bad kids, it doesn't matter: You need to talk to them.

(CNN showed Rice a scene from "Traffic" in which Michael Douglas, who plays 
the nation's drug czar, listens in apparent disbelief as one of his 
drug-addicted daughter's schoolmates rationalizes sales of illegal narcotics.)

(It's an unbeatable market force, man, the student tells the drug czar. 
It's a $300 markup. You can go out on the street and make $500 in two hours 
and do what you want for the rest of your day.)

CNN: What did that do to you emotionally when you saw that scene?

Rice: I would like to have Michael Douglas say, "Then how are you going to 
spend that money, because the IRS tracks it. Every time you make a deposit 
over $10,000 in a bank you have to explain how in the world you earned that 
money." You can't just spend that money ... unless you have some 
extravagant laundering procedure, and a lot of people don't have that.

CNN: If you could get help in just one area, what would you want it to be?

Rice: If we could teach people not to use drugs and wipe out that demand, 
then we'd have an easier job. There wouldn't be a market for any of the 
substances coming across the border.

CNN: What's the drug of choice right now?

Rice: We see more marijuana than any other drug coming into the United 
States, probably second only to cocaine and methamphetamine.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager