David Simon, creator of The Wire, says new US drug laws help only 'white, middle-class kids'

[marmar]

David Simon, creator of The Wire, says new US drug laws help only 'white, middle-class kids'
The award-winning creator of The Wire, David Simon, has emerged as a critic of the 'racial bias' in the US debate on the war on drugs

Ed Vulliamy and Saptarshi Ray
The Observer, Saturday 25 May 2013 09.00 EDT


David Simon surged into the American mainstream with a bleak vision of the devastation wrought by drugs on his home town of Baltimore – The Wire, hailed by many as the greatest television drama of all time. But what keeps him there is his apocalyptic and unrelenting heresy over the failed "war on drugs", the multibillion-dollar worldwide crusade launched by President Richard Nixon in 1971.

When Simon brought that heresy to London last week – to take part in a debate hosted by the Observer – he was inevitably asked about what reformers celebrate as recent "successes" – votes in Colorado and Washington to legalise marijuana.

"I'm against it," Simon told his stunned audience at the Royal Institution on Thursday night. "The last thing I want to do is rationalise the easiest, the most benign end of this. The whole concept needs to be changed, the debate reframed.

"I want the thing to fall as one complete edifice. If they manage to let a few white middle-class people off the hook, that's very dangerous. If they can find a way for white kids in middle-class suburbia to get high without them going to jail," he continued, "and getting them to think that what they do is a million miles away from black kids taking crack, that is what politicians would do." ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/25/the-wire-creator-us-drug-laws

[msanthrope]

1. David Simon wrote the best analysis of Miranda, ever. It was taught at

my law school....

http://books.google.com/books?id=uwjNXOjqTbcC&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=miranda+david+simon&source=bl&ots=ijRw2I8I4A&sig=geNe9luVuo0eehKnaXIQvRpW5Rw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WyOkUdWvK8H90gHRroDoBQ&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=miranda%20david%20simon&f=false

[liberal_at_heart]

2. Seattle police are leaving people alone.

There have been a few warnings not to buy until the regulations are in place, but the police are eager to no longer waste resources on this anymore. Our state police aren't even using police dogs to sniff for marijuana anymore. Seattle police don't have a good relationship with the African American community and have a reputation for using excessive force, but when it comes to marijuana arrests, Seattle is eager to focus on other crimes.

[MrSlayer]

3. Marijuana IS a million miles away from crack.

If he doesn't know this, he really doesn't know shit. And legal marijuana absolutely benefits the black community as well as the white. It'll cut down on the ridiculous amounts of marijuana possession arrests. And why does this guy think pot is a white drug and crack is a black drug? Crack is a poor man's drug, it's cheap. This dude should be talking about selling crack not smoking it. The problem with the drug war isn't putting users in jail, it's jailing dealers that have no other real way to make money. If my choice was working at McDonald's or slinging, you can bet your ass I'd be moving more rock than Barney Rubble. The problem is there are no real jobs for people anymore and when all this outsourcing bullshit started they closed all the factories in the black neighborhoods first. No one but professional gangsters sold dope back in the day, now it's almost a must in the ghetto if you want to eat half decently.

Ice Cube laid it all out back in '91. It hasn't gotten any better.