Drug addiction in the 'heroine capital'

Drug addiction in Baltimore, the so-called 'heroine capital', is one of the major themes explored in The Wire, primarily through the characters of Bubbles and his friend Johnny Weeks. In the first three seasons in particular, their addiction is at its peak with the eventual demise of Johnny as a result of an overdose in the season finale.

            Up to this point, attempts to remedy their addiction have failed. Bubbles briefly attempts to go ‘cold turkey’ and drop his usage of drugs completely, but without Kima’s financial support while she is comatose, he returns to his former lifestyle of usage. Likewise for Johnny, whom even after his hospitalization following a beating from Boadie and the other corner boys, and having discovered that unsterilized needles have left him HIV positive, he continues to fuel his addiction through a life of petty-crime along with Bubbles.

            There seems to be little in way of a safety net, or support (be that financial or otherwise), afforded to these individuals. This is consistent with one of David Simon’s core contentions with the 21^st century American capitalist society, whereby 'human beings-all of us-are worth less. We're worth less every day...'  The fact that Bubbles and Johnny are largely left to ‘fend for themselves’, and almost don’t even feature ‘on the radar’ of authorities or social services, is consistent with Simon’s arguments regarding the decreasing value attached to human life.

            Even in real life, the Baltimore City authorities are seen as merely duking the statistics, so as to portray an image of policy success in combating drugs addiction, and providing some material for their re-election campaigns. David Simon argues that 'one of the themes of The Wire really was that statistics will always lie...statistics can be made to say anything.' Simon sees the formal institutions which are supposed to have a duty of care to their citizens, here regarding engagement to combat drug addiction, are more concerned with their own self-preservation. Indeed, in reality, the Baltimore City authorities are financially dependant on the Open Society Foundation, led by George Soros, to administer and finance the drive to combat addiction in the city.

            As will be seen in later seasons of The Wire, it is left for informal meeting and solidarity groups, seemingly without support from the formal institutions of Baltimore City, to remedy the ills of drug addiction. Bubbles, fortunately, manages to escape the spiral of drug addiction through this group.

            A wider theme examined by David Simon is the catastrophic failure of the policy of drug criminalization, primarily highlighted through Major ‘Bunny’ Colvin’s ‘Hamsterdam’ initiative. Although discussion logically herein leads to consideration of this issue, that theme will be reserved for a later blog post in season three.