What are your plans this Fourth of July weekend? If you are like most Americans, you are likely to be having a cookout, watching fireworks with friends and family, or engaging in some other social event that celebrates your freedom.
But for the millions of Americans who consume cannabis, freedom can be fleeting.
In many states, our fellow citizens still face the possibility of arrest, criminal prosecution, and jail time for a first offense marijuana possession charge. For instance, in Arizona and Florida, first-time possession offenders may face felony charges. In Oklahoma, growing even a single plant is punishable by up to life in prison.
At NORML we understand that this harsh reality is probably not something that you think about every single day — particularly on July 4th. But we do. That is why we are working hard to empower our national network of engaged citizens — citizens like you — to change America’s antiquated and punitive marijuana laws. And, because of you and your efforts, we are succeeding!
It is the highest ideal of American democracy that our nation has a well-informed and politically engaged electorate. That is why every week — via our blog, social networks, and weekly e-zine — NORML aims to arm our supporters with the latest science and news, as well as legislative and legal developments pertaining to cannabis and cannabis policy. Via the NORML Action Center at www.norml.org/act, we keep you up to date on and engaged in all ongoing state and federal legislative efforts to reform marijuana prohibition and restore our freedoms. And we thank the 100,000+ individuals that have taken action over the past few months.
Now, more than ever, it is crucial that we come together and assert our authority over our elected officials. The Declaration of Independence explicitly states: That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
In sum: it’s our responsibility to compel our elected officials to institute change.
Our system of government is not perfect. In fact, it is far from it. But for hundreds of years, citizens have organized and struggled to come closer to Thomas Jefferson’s iconic aspiration, “That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Thomas Jefferson legally grew cannabis. You should be able to as well.
Help us change American for the better.
Happy Fourth of July,
The NORML Team
Since were quoting Jefferson, if anyone will be visiting the D.C. area, where oddly out Congress can mow consume marijuana in the privacy of their DC home but the citizens of D.C. do not have a valid vote, take some time to visit the Jefferson Memorial and look at the words engraved on the south wall. They have a lot in common with our marijuana movement, citizen lobbying, Citizens United and our right to vote;
“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
-Thomas Jefferson
haha… “…Our Congress can now consume…”
Our smoking capital, what hypocrites.
Trump supporters don’t deserve any best wishes for a July 4th. They sold our country to Trump and Sessions, and gave us a new drug war. A Happy Fourth would be to give these Trump supporting idiots a one way ticket to Mars. And to you Trumpsters that claim to be against the drug war, you are either liars or politically retarded.
Yes, and even worse, Trump sold America to Putin, for personal profit. How’s the marijuana legalization movement going in Putin’s Russia? Not well. Brace for Putin-style, authoritarian crackdowns under Trump. Prepare to see activists “disappear!” Unless…
…Unless we patriotic Americans resist, and defeat Trump!