Guest Editorial: San Francisco Needs a HamsterdamSeth Katzman, M.P.H.byline‚ Jun. 27‚ 2007In the brilliant HBO drama, The Wire, a Baltimore police captain, frustrated by persistent drug dealing and violence in his district, establishes a decriminalized zone for dealing and buying drugs in a two-block neighborhood of abandoned houses. The dealing zone becomes known as Hamsterdam. For as long as it exists--for it only lasts as long as the city fathers are unaware of it--Hamsterdam successfully concentrates drug dealing and buying in the two-block area. Crime in the district is dramatically reduced and, because police supervise physical safety in the zone, deaths from overdose decline significantly. Any dealing outside Hamsterdam is dealt with harshly by the Baltimore police. |