Schmoke’s position was so well known within Baltimore that it was incorporated into a storyline on the hit HBO crime drama The Wire decades later. In the series, his proposal to decriminalize drugs came to life as Hamsterdam, a neighborhood created by police major Howard “Bunny” Colvin to study the potential positive effects of de facto legalization of the drug trade. The real-life Schmoke even appeared in two episodes from the third season, in a bit part as the Baltimore health commissioner.
