With the recent trend toward legalization of marijuana in many areas, the question has been raised, ”Should those imprisoned on marijuana-related drug charges be released?” I’d like to briefly consider the available options on the most fundamental level, as the question speaks to a much larger issue.
Release
Legalization is not to be equated with an admission of wrongdoing on the part of past lawmakers. There is no aspect of this proposed legal action that would include apologies, redress of wrongs, etc. There are no reparations suggested for released prisoners. What’s being indicated by their release is that they were rightfully imprisoned at the time, but that it would no longer be right to keep them imprisoned, since the action they were incarcerated for is no longer a crime.
To believe that it is just for a person to lose their freedom, and be removed from their lives and every person they have ever known, one must also believe that it was unjust to perform the action in question. One cannot reasonably and simultaneously believe that an action is just, but harsh punishment of that action is also just. Therefore, if it was just to imprison the person in the first place, the action must have been unjust at that time; and if it is now thought just to release them, the action must now be thought just as well.
This implies that not only can morality change, but that man’s law has the power to determine the nature of that change – that it literally defines morality. This, of course, is not explicitly stated, nor is it typically thought of in these terms, but it is the only logical conclusion when examined critically.
Do Not Release
To keep these prisoners incarcerated despite the relevant action being legalized is to say that it is not the action in question that is justifiably punishable, but the act of disobeying the law itself. This obviates all other considerations regarding any action, and asserts that man's law is justly absolute in all matters.
The necessary implication is that the law answers to no other standard than its own. It has no obligation to any notion of morality whatsoever, be it natural, religious, or social. It has no obligation to practicality, or service to society. It is wholly rooted in the caprice of lawmakers.
The law may prohibit action by the most absurd reasoning - or no reasoning at all - and remains wholly valid. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and creates an unquestionable master class – Gods among men - who may rule with absolute authority, as they see fit.
Conclusion
Any thinking person can see that neither option points to an acceptable conclusion. Who among us would assert that law and morality are one and the same in all cases, or that unquestioned totalitarian rule is just and valid? And yet, this issue is being discussed with no acknowledgement of the unavoidable logical implications.
It is said that ”We shall know them by their fruits”, and so what can be said about the law which offers only invalid, immoral, unacceptable outcomes? It comes as no surprise that - when examined thoroughly - we find the fruits of man’s law to be rotten, as the tree itself is provably so itself.
This issue is but one small example, but it should clue us in to a much larger problem. The very notion of authoritarian law is rooted in error, and so all that springs forth from that root will be invariably unsound. It cannot be otherwise. If we were to expand this investigation, we will see that wherever man’s law deviates from natural, moral law, it will produce such unacceptable outcomes.
In the cases where such a diversion occurs, man’s law can be seen to be invalid, immoral, and thus irrelevant, not being worthy of obedience. Where diversions do not occur, man’s law is wholly redundant, and again irrelevant, as it contributes nothing of its own - the individual was already obliged by the higher standard upon which that law is based.
Expand this line of inquiry to other matters and you will see an insidious picture emerge. You will find that in thousands of cases, man’s law will fail to meet even the most meager standard of rationality, morality, or practicality. As so much public discourse surrounds the application of law, it behooves us to make this mental effort.
What we condone and support, we are doing ourselves by proxy, and when we vote for lawmakers to make immoral law, it is us who are immoral, despite our best intentions. We cannot place blame on those who we endowed with power, nor can we lament the world’s seeming inability to change if we do not accept the responsibility to be that change ourselves.
To see a world of peace and prosperity, we must offer support in accordance with valid reason and principle-based morality. The world does not change on its own, but as a reflection of the change within ourselves.
Thanks for checking in!
Brian Blackwell
Relevant articles supporting a deeper understanding of the ideas presented above may be found here: