I told you a couple of weeks ago about the new reality TV series, “DEA”, which just debuted last week on Spike TV. Now the reviews are coming in, and it’s not looking good for the Drug Warriors.

First from Michigan Daily, the state where “DEA” is filmed:

TV shows Detroit’s war on drugs – Television
“DEA” is like “Cops,” but 35 miles east of Ann Arbor.

The central question of the series seems to be, “Are we winning the war on drugs?” The DEA’s answer is a pronounced “yes,” but the show contradicts itself. How can we be winning if we constantly let the criminal go for revealing his supplier? If anything, “DEA” exposes the problems within the drug enforcement system.

“DEA” may show the excitement of drug raids, but it also shows the long periods of waiting and scheming by the officers. The likeability of the cops and the undercover actions of the Drug Enforcement Administration don’t add up to much when placed next to a half hour of sitting in a van listening to a wired agent talking to a dealer. Even when the actual action takes place, it ends up being nothing more than three minutes of swearing, blurred faces and innumerable threats. Sitting through the majority of the show isn’t worth it.

It’s not easy to find the positives of “DEA” – unless you’re a dealer looking for an inside scoop. TV has always been a place for viewers to escape their ho-hum matters while living vicariously through others and possibly getting a laugh along the way. But “DEA” doesn’t do any of those things, and with its depressing premise and lackluster entertainment value, only a small demographic would find this enjoyable.

Next we get this review from the Toronto Star:

In the end, it all seems so futile.

Undoubtedly, this was not the intended message of DEA (Spike TV, 11 tonight), a new six-part series that returns a spotlight to the battle that once occupied the zeitgeist before terror: the war on drugs.

In fact, since the DEA was created in 1973 by executive order of U.S. president Richard Nixon, 75 agents have been killed in the line of duty.

This isn’t mentioned tonight, nor is the cost of the war on drugs, estimated to be $500 billion over the past 35 years.

There’s no question these agents are brave.

But after one hour, you can’t help but wonder if they appreciate the intractable, cyclical and arguably winless nature of the war they’ve been asked to fight.

“These people that we target, they’re two- and three-time offenders,” says special agent Brad Ripken tonight. “You know, they’ve been through the prison system. They come back out and they go right back to it.”

In another scene, a 60-year-old suspect is arrested; we learn he’s been in and out of the system since 1974, when he first started dealing.

That those in the drug racket are particularly prone to recidivism is not surprising. What is surprising, though, is that communities, governments and law enforcement continue to fixate on supply, without adequately considering demand, which is to say, treatment for addiction.

I hope more people who watch this show come away with the same impression – not about “DEA’s” poor entertainment value, but about the DEA’s poor economic and public policy value. Maybe when people see the great effort and taxpayer expense needed for these shocking SWAT-style raids and officers armed like Rambo bursting into American homes, followed by releasing the person they just arrested if he “flips” on another suspect higher in the food chain, they’ll realize the futility of the current War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs.

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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?

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