Drug Markets, Fringe Markets, and theLessons of Hamsterdam

Table of ContentsI. Introduction 851II. Hamsterdam 857A. An Existential Cop 858B. The Birth of an Idea 858C. The Crime Statistics Shuffle 860D. Transformation 861E. The Dark Side of Success 862F. Councilman Tommy Carcetti 862G. Mayor Clarence Royce 863H. The Fall of A Good Man 863I. Tearing Down Hamsterdam 864III. Hamsterdam and the Inevitability of Markets 864IV. Hamsterdam and the Futility of Prohibition 873V. Hamsterdam and the Politics of Prohibition 882I. IntroductionThe Wire is the greatest television series of all-time.1 Not only that, it is the most important.2 The transcendental quahty of the show lies in what it teaches those of us living in the United States about ourselves. Even when we as a society know the right thing to do, our decaying institutions lack the capacity to act. The ineffectual status quo continues unabated. This feehng of impotence is so jarring to viewers because we immediately know it to be true: our institutions are broken.3 From this perspective, The Wire is not just a television show; it is an expose on the slow decline of America in the twenty-first century.One of the most memorable story arcs from The Wire's five seasons is the rise and fall of Hamsterdam, detailed more fully in Part II of this Article.4 Bunny Colvin, a high-ranking police officer on the verge of retirement, suffers an existential crisis prompted by the ongoing futility of Baltimore's drug war.5 His novel response is to create quasi-legalized drug zones, which are quickly dubbed "Hamsterdam" by the drug dealers who populate them.6 Colvin's calculus is straightforward: by concentrating the worst elements of his district in discrete locations, he improves the quality of life for the law-abiding majority everywhere else. The experiment proves a stunning success - until the politicians learn of it.7 Fearful of the political backlash when news of Hamsterdam's existence inevitably spreads, Baltimore's leaders quickly shut it down and force Colvin to resign in disgrace.8 With Hamsterdam destroyed, the drug dealers again terrorize the rest of Baltimore. The status quo reigns once more.9Stories are powerful teaching tools because they marry information (knowledge) and context (application).10 By observing how the power of law affects characters whom they have come to know and care about, viewers move beyond the four corners of theory to the more dynamic and affecting experience of seeing law play out in a way that is personally meaningful to them. Through this humanizing process of putting a name and a face on complex legal problems, film and television force a greater contemplation of the potential effects of legal decisions in the real world, painting "a picture of the law in action [and] marshaling the power of the visual to make law more real, less abstract."11The story of Hamsterdam - which is essentially Colvin's attempt to transform a black market into a quasi-legal, regulated market - presents an opportunity to utilize this promise of popular culture to analyze public policy questions related to underground and fringe economies.12 Because of their disproportionate effect on disadvantaged communities, low-value markets - legal and illegal - generate significant attention from commentators and scholars. …