Spike TV begins new reality series on the DEA
Mary Irene Cooper: Inside The Real Drug War - Entertainment on The Huffington Post
When Spike TV begins airing their first ever original series, DEA, on April 2, viewers will see for themselves the shocking reality of the drug trade. This series is far more than just another cop show. This series puts the “real” in reality TV. There’s nothing scripted or predictable about this show. It shows the gritty reality of drug enforcement and the violent drug underworld: real DEA Special Agents, real cold-blooded criminals, real drug raids, and the very real dangers we face with every deal.Never before has DEA let cameras this deep into the drug trade. Viewers live the DEA creed to expect the unexpected. As much as we prepare, plan, and train, we can’t control everything on a drug raid or undercover deal. All the planning could change the minute the reality of the street hits. You never know what’s on the other side of the door until you go through it, and as we say, anytime dope and money come together, there’s a good chance of violence.
You may ask DEA agents why we chose this career — one of the world’s most dangerous: why would anyone put themselves in a risky situation like buying dope from volatile dealers, or crashing through doors of stash houses not knowing what we’ll find on the other side. The humble answers you get will include “Because it’s fun,” or “I didn’t want a desk job.” But the real reason we do it is because we believe in our mission. We believe it’s a calling to do this job. We believe that we are the only line of defense standing between law-abiding citizens who deserve to live in drug-free neighborhoods and bad guys driven by greed to line their pockets with the blood-soaked riches of a destructive trade.
What you won’t be seeing on the new DEA series? Body-armored agents with automatic weapons drawn, bursting into a legal medical marijuana dispensary or garden in California, forcing disabled people to the ground with guns at their temples, handcuffing terminally ill patients in wheelchairs, all for abiding by the will of the voters in their state and the opinion of their doctor that marijuana can help relieve the symptoms of their debilitating condition.
Rather than being the line of defense protecting Americans from the “bad guys driven by greed”, the DEA is actually the line of offense in the prohibition that causes all of the “blood-soaked riches” and “violent drug underworld”. They are the decendants of Eliot Ness and the Untouchables who policed alcohol prohibition in the 1920’s - a time of a bootlegging underworld where bad guys driven by greed used violence to secure their blood-soaked riches. We learned then that eliminating the prohibition eliminated the violence - why can’t we re-learn that lesson yet regarding drugs?
Tags: DEA, reality TV, Spike TV
