In a discussion about the War on Drugs on CNN, Anthony Bourdain admitted that his "drug of choice for many years was heroin." Bourdain, who hosts Parts Unknown on the news network, was filling in for Piers Morgan.
"What about decriminalizing them? Just give it up and declare the war over and attack this from a treatment situation?" he asked panelists David Simon and David Carr.
Simon, who created The Wire, was surprisingly negative. "I'm not particularly interested in watching whatever misadventure would be an attempt to legislatively legalize drugs," he stated. "You could imagine the astonishing stupidity that would happen as that wound its way through state legislatures or even the U.S. Congress."
Simon has previously taken the stance that marijuana legalization would mostly benefit white users. He wants to see all drugs legalized at once - not done piecemeal. "You get marijuana out of the drug war and they'll brutalize the inner cites for another two, three generations.," Simon said. "I'm really down on the idea of not treating this holistically and systemically and saying what are we doing with drug prohibition?"
Bourdain added: "I don't see anyone running for office in the United States any time soon standing up and saying I'm for the decriminalization of heroin or cocaine."
