‘The Wire’ Writers And The Drug War

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The creators of The Wire have declared themselves conscientious objectors to America’s war on drugs. Their viewpoint, published in Time magazine, has generated a buzz in the blogosphere.

The article by David Simon, Ed Burns, and three other writers coincides with the final episode of the HBO drama, The Wire, at 9 p.m. Sunday. The series “tried to portray all sides of inner-city collapse, including the drug war,” the writers said. The city is Baltimore.

The drug war, which “began, perhaps, as a battle against dangerous substances long ago transformed itself into a venal war on our underclass,” wrote David Simon et al.

Declaring that politicians are unwilling to acknowledge the failures and unintended consequences of the drug war, The Wire Five suggest jury nullification as a citizen protest.

“If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. Save for a prosecution in which acts of violence or intended violence are alleged, we will — to borrow Justice Harry Blackmun’s manifesto against the death penalty — no longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens.”

My first reaction: “Right on!” With one in every 100 American adults in prison — and one of every 15 black men — this is a way to end the madness.

My second reaction: “Does this mean we’re giving up on democracy?”

Isn’t it already hard enough to round up a jury in Baltimore? Sometimes it seems as if the entire jury pool falls into one of the following categories: People victimized by crime, convicted of crime, or having a relative employed as a police officer or correctional officer.

Witnesses to drug-related crime have been nullifying Baltimore’s criminal justice system for years. You could view witness noncooperation as a principled protest against the drug war, if you’re so inclined. “Stop snitching.” See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

The Wire has told the story of dysfunction in the police, unions, schools, and this year, The Baltimore Sun. Would it help to make the courts more dysfunctional than they already are?

People with only a medium-long memory in Maryland politics will recall that former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke called for a national debate on the drug war in 1988. The response was not exactly positive. In 1994, Schmoke proposed and the General Assembly allowed Baltimore’s needle-exchange program, intended to slow the spread of HIV. Needle-exchange programs became famously successful in Baltimore and other cities.

Schmoke’s successor, Mayor Martin O’Malley, promised to crack down on drug crime and reduce the murder rate. At the same time, he pressed for a big increase in spending for addiction treatment programs. But treatment remains in desperately short supply in Baltimore.

I don’t know enough about jury nullification to decide if I’m for it or agin it. Mayor Schmoke would be qualified to give an opinion. Last I heard, we was dean of the Howard University School of Law in D.C.

Or maybe John Grisham, master of the legal suspense novel, could write the book on jury nullification. He’s already covered just about every other angle on juries.

It should be noted that ending the war on drugs does not necessarily equate to legalizing drugs. The politically viable solution is to change the paradigm. Redefine drug addiction as a public health problem, not a criminal issue. Provide treatment on demand for every addict who wants it, and begin to take the profit out of drug dealing.

But David Simon et al. are probably right. The political will is lacking. – Bernie Hayden

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Filed under Baltimore, Culture, Democracy, Politics, Social Justice

Tags: Crime, David Simon, Drugs, Dysfunction, Ed Burns, Juries, Kurt Schmoke, The Wire