To trace how scripted TV shows have impacted the public's view of the war on drugs, I spoke to a range of people in the industry, from the executive producer of Miami Vice to the author of the book that inspired Netflix's prison drama Orange Is the New Black. (Critics suspected it was also an excuse to send law enforcement after groups critical of Nixon's policies, especially antiwar liberals and Black people.)
This year marks the 50th anniversary of President Nixon's declaration of a "War On Drugs": a global strategy by the federal government to crack down on the illegal drug trade. The way most American TV shows depict that effort is a major reason why. Still, even as he allows that those shows - with their visceral look at the intersection of race, policing, violence and tragedy - may have helped people question five decades of failed drug policy, Simon says he remains a "cockeyed pessimist" on the question of whether the war will ever end.
YOUTUBE DRUG WARS THE CAMARENA STORY SERIES
David Simon created two of TV's most groundbreaking series about the failure of the war on drugs, set in the neighborhoods of Baltimore: HBO's The Corner and The Wire.