My own real-life "The Wire"-style dilemma

The writers of The Wire have a piece in Time Magazine wherein they argue that the first step to ending inner-city problems is to stop jailing non-violent drug offenders. This can't be accomplished by going through official channels, e.g. pestering politicians to get with the program, so we are to heed the call of civil disobedience and vote to acquit non-violent drug offenders whenever we find ourselves on criminal court juries. The article is here.

I love The Wire and I'm vaguely in favor of drug legalization (bring on the ketamine!), so this idea sounds delightful. Here's the problem: To get on a jury of a drug-related case, I'd have to switch my official address from Greene County, NY (home of cases like "some guy stole my horse, horse as in the animal, not as in the 70's nickname for heroin"), to Essex County, NJ (home of cases like "Newark is in Essex County; do the math"). I like having my official residence be in NY State. It reminds me that this "living in New Jersey" nonsense is temporary, that my auto insurance will cost less, and that my vote in the 2008 presidential election will be by absentee ballot. Not only that, but being an eligible juror in Essex County means I'll get called at least twice a year (Have you done the math yet? Goddamned Newark is in Essex County). As much as I like The Wire, I like being paid more than the $5 a day I'd get as a juror.

As cowardly as it feels to turn my back on the writers of The Wire, it's tempered by the knowledge that they themselves don't know the next step of their plan. If you haven't read the article above, it can be distilled thus:

1. Good intentions
2. Acquit non-violent drug offenders
3. ???
4. Inner-cities are rejuvenated!

or to quote from the article:

It will not solve the drug problem, nor will it heal all civic wounds. It does not yet address questions of how the resources spent warring with our poor over drug use might be better spent on treatment or education or job training, or anything else that might begin to restore those places in America where the only economic engine remaining is the illegal drug economy. It doesn't resolve the myriad complexities that a retreat from war to sanity will require. All it does is open a range of intricate, paradoxical issues. But this is what we can do — and what we will do.

Re-reading that paragraph, the writers strike me as just the sort of useless hippie I find most distasteful ... so as much they advocate acquitting non-violent drug offenders, I similarly advocate not re-reading the Time article. Otherwise The Wire will be tanished for all of us, and Bubbles' struggle will have been in vain.