I wrote an essay concerning the representation of the American drug war in the television show Breaking Bad. I also constructed an accompanying website which contains information on the show, the war on drugs and the representation of the drug war within the show.
The Representation of America’s War on Drugs in Breaking Bad
For my research project I will be looking at how America’s War on drugs is reflected in Breaking Bad. America’s war on drugs is one of the most controversial issues that the United States has ever faced and is an issue that only now the US government are starting to admit failure on. The concluding season of Breaking Bad aired only hours after Attorney General Eric Holder announced that America’s War on Drugs needs significant changes. Breaking Bad is one of the most accurate depictions of the drug trade that has ever been on television and it is a show that has influenced many people’s opinion on the drug war. I will look at one of the reasons Breaking Bad has gained a huge reputation and audience, which is that American’s in particular are starting to question their views on the war on drugs. Over the past 40 years America’s war on drugs has cost over $1 Trillion and has accounted for more than 45 million arrests. [i]
Up until recently the war on drugs has been an issue that has been avoided within American television. It started to be touched on at the same time as the rise of critically acclaimed television in America, as networks started to put increasing funding into the production of television shows, networks such as HBO and AMC had to compete with each other as the demand for quality television grew. This enabled shows to have higher budgets and because of this they were able to tackle long narratives that would not be able to be covered in movies. Arguably the first show to tackle the issue was HBO’s The Wire, which ran from 2002-2008. The Wire is a crime drama television show about the illegal drug trade in the American city of Baltimore. It was created and primarily written by former police reporter David Simon, two years before the release of The Wire David Simon wrote the HBO mini series The Corner, which was concerning the war on drugs but did not receive the popularity that the Wire did. Since finishing the show David Simon has gone on to be involved with critically acclaimed documentary The House I Live In. The documentary examines how political and economic corruption has fuelled America’s war on drugs for the past forty years even though there has been sufficient evidence that it has been a moral, economic and practical failure. David Simon has strong views on the drug war, going as far as to say “The drug war has become a way for the US government to basically kill the poor, by locking up the bottom 15% of America the US government can make money in the short term, even though it is a massive burden for society.” [ii] One of the next shows to tackle the issue was Showtime’s Weeds. Weeds is a dark comedy television show about a widowed mother who begins to sell illegal drugs to support her family. It was created and primarily written by Jenji Kohan. However the show that I am going to focus on in my research essay is AMC’s Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad is a crime drama about a high school chemistry teacher who when diagnosed with lung cancer starts producing crystal meth in order to make money to support his family after his death. It was created and primarily written by Vince Gilligan. I have chosen to focus my study on the text of Breaking Bad because I think it is one that has bought to light the issue of the war on drugs to many people and helped influence these peoples thoughts on the issue. When asked about the issue Gilligan has said “I’m kind of agnostic on that subject. I don’t know if it’s the best possible way to go. I don’t know if decriminalisation of certain drugs is the way to go, either. You’d think I’d have a stronger opinion on it, but I spend all my time thinking about this one character and not the politics at large. Having said that, I know there are a lot of well-intended men and women trying to stop the flow of drugs, and I know these cartels in Mexico, to use one example, are the cause of a great deal of pain and suffering and death. Having said that, is it the right way to go to hit them even harder and keep it all criminalised? Or should we suddenly take them out of the market by making all that stuff legal? Hard to say.” The fact that Gilligan has such a neutral view on the issue enables to him to write fairly and helps the show not to simply complain about the war on drugs. The show does not offer a clear moral stance on this issue of the drug war. “This may be the scariest aspect of “Breaking Bad,” and of the drug trade itself: the more ghoulish and extreme the show becomes, the more it seems to traffic not in realism but in horror, and the more accurately it captures the reality of the cartels and their business.” [iii]
Breaking Bad is one of the most accurate depictions of the drug trade because the world it depicts is so mundane and does not show anything glamorous. In the show drugs are already there, even if Walter White was not manufacturing crystal meth somebody else would be. At this point in time drugs are not about individuals but are about the corporate system in which they are produced and the show depicts this accurately, whether it’s with Gus Fring’s Los Pollos Hermanos fried chicken fast food chain that is a cover for the manufacturing and selling of crystal meth or Madrigal the company that owns the chain, the selling of drugs is a business. In the real world and in Breaking Bad a like there are an endless amount of drug suppliers and producers, when one is either killed or caught and arrested another seems to emerge almost instantly, from Tuco to Gustavo Fring and then to Walter White. Experts on the drug war have rightly named this “the cockroach effect” stomping out one encourages the rest to scatter which in turn multiplies the amount of cockroaches that you see. When a drug lord is jailed and his organization dismantled other organizations appear due to the lack of leadership and conflict in the area. Getting rid of one drug kingpin does not mean his production of drugs will cease it simply means he will not be in charge of said production. “Suppliers, whether they are Mexican cartels, owners of fried chicken fast food restaurants, or nerdy high school teachers, will never stop entering the industry, despite DEA efforts to stop them. Breaking Bad illustrates this perfectly: as Hank celebrates small victories when he catches leaders of drug rings, sooner or later the blue meth reappears on the streets.” [iv] When Walter White steps down from producing his product there is still high quality blue meth being sold, at first it is Todd trying to produce it and then it turns into Jesse. No matter who is producing it if there is an incentive for it on the market then it will keep reappearing on the streets. This is one of the biggest issues that the DEA are and have been facing. The US Department of the Treasury has a list of drug lords called the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, which they have had since 2000. There are hundreds of drug lords on this list, many of which have been caught but as soon as one is caught another emerges and the list grows larger and larger. US Law Enforcement could learn a lesson or two from Breaking Bad and the way it so accurately depicts this cycle of drug suppliers and maybe spend some time trying to reform policies rather than to continue this never ending cycle.
““Breaking Bad is really about a topic truly much sexier than meth: regulation. Whether Walt’s slinging blue crystal, spilling state secrets or peddling counterfeit goods is irrelevant, as long as it’s illegal. Consider this scene in first season finale: Walt and Hank sit poolside with two Cuban cigars and a bottle of hard liquor. “If we were drinking this in 1930, we’d be breaking the law,” Walt muses. He tips his glass and gives the cigar a puff. “Who knows what will be legal next year?” Walt’s suggesting, of course, that the bright lines of regulation are arbitrary — his brother-in-law, ever the DEA agent, remains skeptical.” [v] Walter White says at one point that if he were living in a more libertarian society he would simply be a businessman who would be doing nothing criminal. If you look at the economic standing point of the DEA in their war against drugs they are basically protecting the drug cartels. Drug prohibition is the reason drugs cost so much more than they cost to produce, it is because of the risk that the DEA has created, if drugs were legal then criminals would not be able to make such large amounts of money selling them. Both in Breaking Bad and in real life the DEA and other federal agencies are the ones who empower the drug cartels. If people want narcotics then they will be supplied, the only question is how. “Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and make crime out of things that are not crimes.” [vi] When Walter White’s brother in law Hank Schrader, who also happens to be head of the Albuquerque DEA, is put in the middle of the investigation of Gus Fring and of Walter White, the show brings into question another interesting fact about the war on drugs. One of the reasons that Hank Schrader is in such a difficult situation is that Gus Fring has a very high profile fundraiser status, in particular helping and donating to the DEA. This poses a question about the way the law is enforced in different ways to different people. Some might say that a rich, respectable looking criminal would have a far higher chance of getting away with a crime than if a poor person of minority were to commit the same crime. Today even though the drug usage rate of White and Black people is approximately equal, black people are 10 times more likely to be sent to prison for drug offences and now represent 56% of US prisoners who have be incarcerated for drug offences, even though black people only make up 13% of the US population.[vii]
Over it’s five seasons Breaking Bad has managed to portray lots of issues of the US drug war, from the corporate structure of the drug system that it so accurately puts across, to the violence that comes hand in hand with drugs. The show teaches us that somebody will always be supplying drugs and that maybe the US law enforcement should consider using some of their resources to reform some of their policies. However while the show represents issues of the war on drugs it also manages to show both sides of the “war”. Whichever stance is takes on the drug war, Breaking Bad has influenced many peoples opinions on the subject and this is one of the many reasons that the show has become one of the most widely loved and critically acclaimed shows that has ever been on television.
[i] www.thehouseilivein.org/get-involved/drug-war-today/
[ii] The House I Live in – Documentary (Dir. Eujene Jackson, 2012)
[iii] http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/07/the-uncannily-accurate-depiction-of-the-meth-trade-in-breaking-bad.html
[iv] http://www.policymic.com/articles/58567/breaking-bad-conveys-the-reality-of-the-drug-trade-better-than-u-s-drug-policy
[v] http://yaledailynews.com/weekend/2013/10/04/the-drug-war-according-to-vince/
[vi] www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/paradox/htele.html
[vii] http://drugwarfacts.org
