America's War on Drugs

Gangsters, gurus, warlords, spies, street gangs, and politicians vie for control of a black market for narcotics; stories of secret assassination attempts, LSD experiments and covert support of heroin traffickers in the lead up to the War on Drugs.

Cocaine gives rise to cartels; CIA shadow wars contribute to the first narco-state; crack floods into the United States as an unintended consequence of the fight against communism; a former DEA agent discusses U.S. culpability in the cocaine trade.

The Clinton administration's support of NAFTA inadvertently opens the door to Mexican cartels; a crackdown on violence leads to mass incarceration; a celebrity's sister becomes a meth lord; powerful cartels begin a war for dominance.

The intertwining of the War on Drugs and the War on Terror transforms Afghanistan into a narco-state; American intervention helps give rise to El Chapo and the super cartels; the pharmaceutical industry becomes a supplier of addictive substances.