Bloody Baltimore

The Wire, especially the first season, is a social commentary about the failure of the War on Drugs, a term coined by Chief Domestic Advisor to Richard Nixon, John Ehrlichman. It was never supposed to be an effective social or public health policy. It was only meant to be a political solution for Nixon to combat anti-war protesters. Succesive Presidents either wholeheartedly adopted the so-called war or never had the political will to declare it a failure. See Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure by Dan Baum (1996).