The Business of Drugs

A documentary series about drug smuggling around the world. Reviews all stages of drug distribution. The economic viability of the Enship to participate in the process, the fears, the dangers, the endless demands. Attempts by countries to eradicate the phenomenon and the expansion of global use following globalization, among other things, have been unsuccessful. A very intriguing and interesting program. Made excellent. Highly recommend it.

Nothing new or groundbreaking is presented in the series. However, in a world where nearly all education on drugs is politicized in some way in favor of advocating the "war on drugs", the presentation of the material seeks and, in my opinion, successfully serves to re-baseline public knowledge of the black market of various drugs in a simple, digestible and entertaining way - suitable and obtainable for the massive Netflix audience to consume. This series knows what it is, knows what it is trying to convey, knows the audience, and executes its objectives well.

Let's start with the positive! -Great visuals -Impressive access -Interesting experts -Smooth editing

The negatives; -Miss CIA operative can't help but mention her CIA background every 5 minutes. -Objectivity is out the window. To me that's a faux pas in documentaries!

The Business of Drugs has some good info if you are new to the subject matter and and an engaging host to guide us through it. If you have watched things like this before however it doesn't really break any new ground other than the subtle political drops.

The first "hold on a sec" moment was, calling FARC "far right", when in reality FARC was a Marxist-Leninist rebel group.

From the Wiki, Ideology: Marxism-Leninism, Guevarism, Bolivarianism, Revolutionary socialism, Left-wing nationalism, Foco theory

Political position: Far-left

There is also the insinuation that legalizing cocaine might curb the black market. Obviously that would not be true (production costs, transportation, taxation, etc.) and the black market would still thrive. Also, Legalization would only introduce the product to more consumers as we are seeing with cannabis.

Strangely the legalization theory is undermined later in the documentary when bringing up the thriving black market with legal marijuana. Stranger still is the assertion of how marijuana is being used to keep black men in legal troubles so they can't vote and thus ensuring there will not be another Obama in the White House (sic). I'm not making this up, they said this, in a documentary that is supposed to be giving us facts. There is also mention that the high start up cost of legal marijuana is racist and sexist. Yeah, they said that too.

Add in another slight on conservatives and another remark blaming capitalism for the fentanyl crisis that in their opinion can be solved with more government and more regulations. A quick skim through the credits and I see the name Bloomberg, yep, that one.

It's a shame Netflix has these types of documentaries that seem to be soft political messages hiding inside of compelling subjects and some decent information. I think I just might stick to movies if this is going to be the case

The best 'drugs' documentary I've ever seen. It was a very successful job. The presenter is good, the stories are good, the topics mentioned are good, the analysis is good ... I felt the quality while watching.