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.

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.

The way most American TV shows depict that effort is a major reason why. 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. (Critics suspected it was also an excuse to send law enforcement after groups critical of Nixon’s policies, especially antiwar liberals and Black people.)

After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, ‘What Good Is It Doing For Us?’
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. Most said they believed scripted TV shows had a serious and sometimes unrecognized impact on public attitudes, simply by encouraging audiences to empathize with some parts of the process, while keeping more troubling aspects firmly out of view.

Shows glorified ‘The Thin Blue Line’
As a longtime, outspoken opponent of the aggressive arrest and imprisonment efforts central to the War on Drugs, the Emmy-winning TV producer David Simon sees two big problems with typical police dramas. First, he says, they depict situations where cops — however flawed or troubled — are society’s stalwart defense against lawless drug dealers and addicts. He calls that “The Thin Blue Line” narrative.

Rewatching ‘The Wire’: Classic Crime Drama Seems Written For Today
Secondly, Simon adds, such shows are almost always written from the perspective of law enforcement. And as any good producer can tell you, where you place the camera is where the audience will empathize.

“I don’t think we can [correct] this narrative … it’s just too much fun,” Simon says, ruefully. “For normative America, for the America that isn’t vulnerable to these [enforcement] policies … it’s a modern day western.”

TV’s early police procedurals set the pattern: a whitewashed vision supporting the status quo focused on middle class sensibilities. Exhibit A: 1950s and ’60s-era series like Dragnet, which lionized straitlaced detectives lecturing young people that a hit of marijuana would inevitably lead to an out-of-control heroin habit.
(For fun, search for “Dragnet drug episodes” on YouTube to detectives Joe Friday and Bill Gannon, played by star/creator Jack Webb and Harry Morgan, stiffly explaining different street drugs to clueless, middle-aged parents.)