When during the course of human events it becomes necessary for people to act on behalf of a plant to dissolve the political bands which have connected it with a government body and to assume among our rights as American citizens, the separate and equal voices of the people and the origins they come from, we must formally inform the government of its inadequacies handling this situation and why we must act on behalf of this genus of plant.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that Cannabis is a genus of plant needlessly persecuted by the United States Government to the detriment of the nation and the planet. The federal laws that govern the growing, use, ingestion, and personal opinion of this genus are an infringement on our rights as citizens of the United States of America.

As citizens, we have a responsibility to fix the problem by abolishing the old system and laying a foundation on the original principles that guide our nation. We are empowered by the very fact that we walk the Earth; indeed, all men and women are created equal. We have a right to represent Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness in whatever form that takes and be heard, especially when speaking the truth.

We do not take this action lightly; this declaration is in response to dire need. We understand the nature of Man’s suffering and know it to be a necessary evil but the laws enacted to govern Cannabis are counter to the solution. For this reason, we cannot accept the federal laws in place.

When the government repeatedly attacks its own citizens, when it falsifies information, when it acts in the interest of a few rather than the common good, and when it completely disregards the Constitution that this nation is founded on, we have the right and the duty to overthrow that government and establish a new system.

The current Federal Government of the United States of America has, and continues to operate in a manner that is counter to the principles the nation was founded on.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:

It has maintained that Cannabis is a dangerous drug in direct ignorance of the medical properties it is known to have.

It has perpetuated a racist attitude since the beginning of Cannabis governance in the United States: with the first Cannabis laws enacted as a way to control Mexican populations and currently as indicated by the irrational number of arrests of minorities, specifically blacks, over whites, charged with simple possession of Cannabis.

It has, as a scare tactic, and for the profit of those vested in the privatized penal system, imprisoned its own citizens and the citizens of other nations in an attempt to quell the propagation of the Cannabis plant.

It has attempted to intimidate proponents of Cannabis by using the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to enforce the Controlled Substances Act with use of firearms and violence.

It, as the DEA, has forbidden propagation of industrial hemp, a valuable natural resource that is is a different end form of the Cannabis plant than Marijuana.

It, as the DEA, has mercilessly attacked the otherwise innocent proponents of all kinds of Cannabis on the basis of the association with Marijuana.

It, as the DEA, has spent taxpayer money to eradicate the plant in the wild and in urban environments.

It, as the Department of Homeland Security, the US Military, and the DEA, has failed to stop cartels from smuggling drugs over the borders into our country and causing violence to the detriment of all countries involved.

It, as the DEA, has attacked and disabled Oaksterdam University, an institution whose main goal is to educate the public about Cannabis.

It, as the DEA, has allowed the detention without charge of a Cannabis user, Daniel Chong, left in a jail cell for five days without food or water.

It, as president Barack H. Obama, has refused to engage the proponents in a respectful way, opting instead to laugh at overwhelming YouTube town hall questions about Cannabis and “what that says about [the] online audience”; berating and belittling a movement of people who supported him.

It has refused to acknowledge states’ intelligent and responsible enactment of laws regarding the control of Cannabis.

It has allowed its Congressional Committee Chairman Lamar Smith of Texas to ignore progressive Cannabis legislation like the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011 H.R. 2306, introduced to the House of Representatives by Republican Ron Paul and Democrat Barney Frank.

It has perpetuated the fall of the United States economy by not allowing Cannabis to be grown, instead relying on unsustainable products destined for third world countries and our planet’s oceans in the form of a large island made of plastic garbage.

It has prohibited hemp as a crop despite evidence of its versatility and proven positive effects on the environment as in the forms of negative carbon emissions and soil improvement.

It has forbidden the domestic production of Cannabis for hemp whilst allowing the importation of the plant, causing higher prices and lack in Gross Domestic Product.

Its Library of Congress contains materials regarding the negative effects of the Prohibition of Alcohol in the 1920s and continues to support Prohibition of a plant which has no confirmed related deaths.

It enacted a law, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, meant to tax the Cannabis plant, but effectively prohibited it by not issuing tax stamps.

It employed propaganda like Reefer Madness at the hands of Hearst, Anslinger, DuPont, and Mellon, ignored due process by holding extremely short US Congressional hearings on the subject, and accepted false testimony from non-experts during those hearings for the purposes of quickly passing the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 and eliminating Cannabis production as a natural competitor to synthetic materials like Nylon.

It changed its position on the Cannabis plant during World War II and produced a propaganda film called Hemp for Victory to encourage American farmers to grow hemp because Japanese forces had eliminated the imported supply necessary for sustaining the US Armed Forces with cordage and other hemp products.

It, as president Richard M. Nixon, ignored the report “Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding,” that he commissioned Raymond P. Shafer to write in 1972 and its recommendation to overhaul the Cannabis laws, especially with regard to medicinal value, the usefulness of the plant, and the symbol that Cannabis is in American society.

It has sent mixed messages regarding the plant’s legality with the implementation of an FDA program signed into law by president Jimmy Carter allowing a limited number of citizens access to free medical Cannabis and the constant federal raids on state-sponsored medical Cannabis facilities.

It has allowed the murder of propagators of the Cannabis plant and other innocent people.

It allows its law enforcement officers to perform unwanted and unconstitutional searches of personal property for the purposes of intimidating proponents of Cannabis.

It has destroyed the lives of potential higher-education students who have been denied access to funds because of federal Cannabis-related drug offenses.

It has employed trickery in the form of double-agents, spies, and other unconstitutional methods of obtaining evidence to be used against Cannabis proponents.

It has acted in a way that is counter to a general concern for the commonwealth of the the nation because violence has been employed as a means to control public opinion.

It ignores the technology available to effectively control, tax, and regulate Cannabis the same as any other product in lieu of prohibiting the plant, leading to a Black Market for the drug Marijuana and importation of and loss of benefits from industrial hemp.

We have attempted to affect change in a civil manner. Repeatedly, the topic is dismissed and not given its due attention. This plant causes no deaths and it should not be illegal, if only for the sole reasons of responsible taxation and regulation.

The federal laws governing the plant genus Cannabis are immoral, wrong, and directly conflict with the Constitution and Declaration of Independence of the United States.

We, therefore, as citizens of the United States of America, unified in only this voice, appealing only to the Supreme Judge for rectification of our intentions, do, in the name of the United States of America, by the power vested in all of us by our own life, declare that the plant genus Cannabis is a native inhabitant of the planet Earth and should therefore not be subject to the laws set forth by the United States Federal Government, which shall have no jurisdiction over the Cannabis plant in any of its forms, nor inflict any harm whatsoever on any person because of Cannabis. All political connections the United States Federal Government have with the Cannabis genus are now and ought to be forever abolished and that as Free citizens of the States of America, we are free to assume full power as Independent States to govern Cannabis as we see fit. –And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on truth and liberty as a guide, we mutually pledge each other our Lives, our Dedication to the Truth about Cannabis, and our Sacred Honor.

California

Ryan Lutz

Inspired by the words written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776.