SCORING POINTS FROM TRAFFIC

Yesterday, the film Traffic, starring Michael Douglas as a newly appointed
American drug czar, received five Academy Award nominations, including best
picture. The Lindesmith Center -- Drug Policy Foundation, an organization
founded by multi-billionaire George Soros, seized on this opportunity to
highlight what it views as the film's message: The drug war is futile and
costs American taxpayers millions of dollars.

To link the film with America's real war on drugs, the foundation used
Oscar nomination day to launch a cyber drug-war-awareness campaign at
www.StopTheWar.com. The site includes a game where participants can try to
win the war on drugs, but eventually learn that America's "current drug
strategies are not working." Viewers also have a chance to win a Traffic
DVD or video.

StopTheWar.com uses images from the film, but Tony Newman, a communications
director at The Lindesmith Center, says that this should not be seen as an
endorsement by USA Films, the movie studio responsible for Traffic, of the
foundation's position.

"I think they're trying to stay distant from any advocacy on this," says
Newman, "[but] they allowed us to use their visuals." (Several calls to USA
Films publicity offices resulted in them not being able to confirm or deny
whether permission was obtained to use their images.)

The Lindesmith Center says that the drug war has resulted in narcotics
simply being "cheaper, purer, and more readily available than ever."

Rubbish, says the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington
(ONDCP), central control for America's real drug czar.

While stressing that the ONDCP does not have an official position on
Traffic -- "It's a fictional movie" -- its press spokesman, Bob Weiner, is
adamant that "the movie is being quite abused" by organizations like The
Lindesmith Center, which are "creating a message of failure that actually
isn't in the movie.

"Traffic shows how the DEA busts the drug cartel, how a parent saves a
child," says Weiner.

Newman disagrees. "If they call that success, we need a new definition of
success," he says. "Trying to keep drugs out of our society isn't working.
We need a new approach that offers drug treatment. Sixty per cent of the
people in this country who need it can't get it. And treatment is much more
effective than locking someone up in jail."

But it seems Newman and Weiner agree on one thing. "We would love to see
Traffic win the Oscars," says Newman.

Weiner also has praise for the film: "The acting in Traffic is better than
most other drug films."