If You Call Yourself a Drug Policy Reformer, You Need to Watch This

This Slate article about how college professors across the country are using The Wire to teach a variety of subjects reminded me how many of my fellow drug policy activists still haven't gotten around to watching the show.

If institutions of higher learning are able to comprehend The Wire's mind-expanding educational value, then it really shouldn’t be necessary for me to beg reformers to put those ridiculous Weeds DVDs aside for a couple weeks and watch the most accurate and revealing depiction of urban drug warfare ever created. It is literally so realistic that people who've watched all five seasons should be considered eligible for a certificate of expertise in modern drug war police practices.

Your failure to watch The Wire could be depriving you of insights that would advance the cause of reform. In other words, you are screwing over the rest of us by not doing your share and forcing us to carry the burden of The Wire's wisdom on our own. We have to listen to you express opinions that would be more succinct if you'd seen it, thus you're basically wasting everyone's time with your non-Wire-influenced ideas about the war on drugs.

Your intransigence might be forgivable if The Wire were boring, but it is widely and correctly considered the most interesting and entertaining program in the history of television, even among people who never gave a damn about crime and drug policy until The Wire came along and completely blew their minds.

Here, just watch Omar steal all the heroin in Baltimore and tell me you don't want more: