Liberty is in fact the centerpiece of our American republic. The Declaration of Independence proclaims that all [human beings] are created equal, and endowed with certain unalienable rights; the words "among these", just after Jefferson's grand announcement, imply that not only are "we the People" entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", but we are entitled to various other unamed rights. Certainly, legal precedent is clear that we each have a constitutional right to own property.
SO... Why is it illegal for U.S. citizens to grow a plant on their own property for their own personal use? Why is it illegal for a farmer to grow industrial hemp for textiles, food and fuel? Why are so many of us, so many of your own neighbor's, condemned as criminals for demanding access to an herbal medicine?
Honestly, I believe that if America's founders thought that one day the U.S. government would make illegal a plant which they themselves grew and utilized, they would have overwhelmingly ratified an additional amendment to the Bill of Rights ensuring that [the People can never be denied the right to grow any plant on their own property for their own personal use.]
As if all of the foresaid were not enough reason to put cannabis decrimialization on the ballot in every juristiction across the country that allows for a citizen's initiative process, I would like to add that testing the People's agreement with America's current decades old canabis laws will be a shot in the arm for a democratic republic that has been increasingly deteriorating in recent years. In a letter written to James Madison in 1789, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "...no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation."
Jefferson's wise words communicate the very essence of "democracy". In my opinion, it's time that the "living generation" evaluated current law, and that we alter or abolish those laws that no longer reflect the will of the People.
Comments