The most obvious drug embraced by criminal cartels (8)

'the most obvious' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'drug embraced by criminal cartels' is the wordplay.
'drug' becomes 'e' (E is another name for ecstasy).
'embraced by' indicates putting letters inside.
'criminal' indicates anagramming the letters.
'cartels' with letters rearranged gives 'clearst'.
'e' going into 'clearst' is 'CLEAREST'.

Can you help me to learn more?