So I'm watching HBO's The Wire the other day (if any of you know me then you know that it is my favorite show) when one of the episodes catches my attention. Somewhere in the middle of the critically acclaimed season three I get to the episode titled Hamsterdam. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, Hamsterdam is a section of Baltimore where the police have made drug dealing legal. The rules are actually quite simple. If you sell drugs in the designated areas the police will leave you alone. If you choose to sell drugs elsewhere the police will fuck you up and then proceed to charge you with the harshest penalties. It essentially works until the national news circuit gets word of it prompting city officials to shut it down. Now although it worked in the TV show my question to myself is would it work in real life?
Short term answer: Yes. Long term answer: HELL NO
Now to clear something up when I say drugs I mean hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine, etc. (the ganja should have been legalized a looong time ago anyway). So going back to the question, at first it would work. To be honest it would really work. Just think, it would be a society where the two worlds would be completely separated. If you to want indulge yourself in the drug culture you know exactly where to go; if you want no part in it you'd never see it. In the show the areas where routinely patrolled by uniformed cops, so there would be some supervision. With all the drug traffic in one small area the rest of the city would be drug free, making the community better as a whole. Crime would be down and moral would be up. Even going back in history we see that the first thing prohibition did was make bootlegging increase, so it's safe to say that perhaps the same thing is happening with the drug problem. Besides, it seems that drugs are here to stay, so why not just make them legal in the most run down part of the city?
So it seems like the obvious thing to do is to make a Hamsterdam in every city. But what happens when the honeymoon period is over? We all know that besides the obviously destruction drugs do to the community and to those who use it one of the main reasons drugs remain illegal is the violence that is associated with it. And where does this violence stem from? One word: competition. Competition for customers, product, turf, and everything else is the one aspect of the drug game that would make something like Hamsterdam impossible in the real world. In an area that small and regulated it would become saturated with all different kinds of dealers all looking to make a dollar at everyone else's expense, and that would lead to a situation where everyone loses.
Although an idea such as Hamsterdam seems like a dream solution in all reality it's just that; a dream. A dream that would later turn into a nightmare. Maybe there is a solution to America's drug problem, but making an area for dealers to do their thing isn't it.
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