I thought the juxtaposition of the phrases “drugs” and “family business” highlighted a major theme in the Wire. In my post about episode 13 of the Wire that will be up later this week, I discuss D’Angelo’s outcry at how this is his family business. He grew up in this, the dealing, the money, the killing. “Ya’ll don’t understand man, ya’ll don’t get it. I grew up with this shit,” he tells McNulty. “You just live this shit until you cant breathe no more.”

In episode 2, season 2, D’Angelo’s mother visits Avon and they discuss the family and protecting D’Angelo. Despite all that has happened the family and drug business are both still intact, but the last we heard from D’Angelo, he wanted to escape.

I thought the two phrases I used in this gif contradict each other perfectly because as D’s mother explains in episode 13, drugs are the family business and they would be nowhere without it. Thinking of drugs as a family business throws societal ideals out the door and creates a new type of family in a world that many do not understand. It is a world and life that people are forced into because there is no other option.