Marijuana as a Crime: A fair label?

A group of students from the University of Washington organized last week a meeting that focused on the idea of “Marijuana as a Crime”. In other words, these students – mainly philosophers – wanted to talk about whether or not are fair to label the use of marijuana as a crime, even when marijuana is illegal. In fact, even if illegality is obviously a concept related directly to law and the State, “crime” is something way more complicated: it implies a moral judgment, and a kind of social condemnation.

This is not a silly discussion. Actually, quite the opposite. Too often illegality becomes the channel through which a particular act gets depicted as “criminal”, and therefore immoral and wrong. The connection between illegality and crime, however, takes for granted the fact that a law is somehow the expression of goodness and morality. In other words, if we associate illegality and crime without questioning the nature of the law, we are reinforcing – knowingly or unknowingly – the idea that laws are always righteous. Governments and politicians, those who are responsible for the creation of the laws we are forced to follow, are not exactly the embodiment of righteousness and morality. I am sure that everyone of us can think about (at least) one instance in which a politician was corrupted and immoral. Following this logic, laws are indeed the expression of governments and politicians, but their moral nature is questionable.

Let’s be clear about this: I am not suggesting that we should not follow the law. What I am saying, however, is that some laws are not exactly moral, and many others are the result of powerful interests and political negotiations. Now, my question is simple: if you act against an immoral law, are you a criminal? Personally, I don’t think so. You certainly are guilty of doing something illegal, against the law, but you are not a criminal because what you did is actually something more honest than the law you just broke.

Marijuana laws are often the results of negotiations between corrupted politicians and powerful players. Often, people are not even able to access the web and purchase cannabis seeds (from honest websites like http://greenhouseseeds.nl, because the government is too scared to be righteous. Is it really a crime, then, to smoke pot, if you are doing it because you need its health benefits? Is it a crime to smoke while the politicians who should represent you are unable to move past their own ignorance?

Food for thoughts.