From the front lines of the drug war

Drug Enforcement Administration agent Vince Rice shared some of his observations on the drug trade with "Traffic" director Steven Soderbergh

DEA agent: Traffic will slow with education

From Paul Vercammen
CNN Showbiz Today Reports

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.

	VIDEO
CNN's Paul Vercammen talks with a California DEA agent about the film 'Traffic' Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

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.

In "Traffic," Michael Douglas plays the nation's anti-drug czar and father to an addicted teenager, played by Erika Christensen

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.

Star of Tomorrow: Erika Christensen of 'Traffic'
March 14, 2001
Benicio Del Toro traffics in acclaim
March 8, 2001
Steven Soderbergh is busy, happy, planning next film
December 26, 2000

'Traffic' official site
Drug Enforcement Administration

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