Two of my passions collide. The writers of “The Wire” — almost certainly the greatest television show of all time — pen a fantastic piece about the failings of the drug war:

What the drugs themselves have not destroyed, the warfare against them has. And what once began, perhaps, as a battle against dangerous substances long ago transformed itself into a venal war on our underclass. Since declaring war on drugs nearly 40 years ago, we’ve been demonizing our most desperate citizens, isolating and incarcerating them and otherwise denying them a role in the American collective. All to no purpose. The prison population doubles and doubles again; the drugs remain.

Update: David Simon discusses “The Wire” with Terry Gross, with a singular emphasis on the drug war and the themes of the essay quoted above. (via crazymonk.)