From the coca leaves illicitly grown in the jungles of South America to the lines snorted in nightclub toilets around the world – the global cocaine trade alone is worth 100 billion dollars a year.

In this show, we follow the money to find out how the cocaine industry actually works, why it functions the way it does, why the brutal tactics of the War on Drugs (designed only to suppress the business) are doomed from the start and needlessly target the most vulnerable across the world.

In War On Drugs, we examine the social implications of prohibition worldwide. Any attempt to shut down the trade in drugs such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine or weed invariably sets off a chain of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and inequality across the globe.

Everyone loses – except, in a weird kind of way, the drugs themselves.

Watch more from this series:

How America Got Hooked on Opioids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJc-YI7OWfY

Debunking Crystal Meth Myths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-VkWkPs1aw

The War on Drugs is Racist to the Core

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf5qFIpJ2sk

Ketamine: The Next Big Antidepressant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfmPu8l24wY

‘Spice’ is Britain’s Most Dangerous Drug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L62rHDJFAkg

The Great MDMA Drought and Its Deadly Consequences https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUNvLPNLxSw

Why Portugal Decriminalized All Drugs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dU5yiKBqCk