The example cited above is a clear example of how labile and volatile
the boundary between legal and illegal really is. The day before the political
decision, marijuana was illegal. The day after, it had become legal and,
a few months later, widely available in shops. At different latitudes and in
different contexts, we all live in an environment in which rules are pre-defined,
almost “parachuted” onto politically organized communities
(most often, modern states) through legal and civil codes the design of
which is neither consensual nor participatory. We are innately members of
social groups with their own social rules, conventions, behaviours, attitudes
and perceptions about what is morally acceptable and socially appropriate
and what is not. We are educated and indoctrinated with the rules
that are necessary to survive in our given society, fed with laws that we
need to know in order to avoid bringing the coercive or punitive arm of
the state down on ourselves. We learn the “dos” and “don’ts” of the
environment(s) in which we are born, raised and eventually decide to live.
Sometimes rules are relatively similar across environments, sometimes they
differ radically and at other times they change significantly over time,
either gradually or all of a sudden.