- The Declaration of Independence
is the founding document of the country.
It's not a law, it's the ideal
which we are striving to get to.
The major ideals that are espoused in the Declaration
is that every human has at least three birth rights:
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
And then the Declaration also says that,
'Governments should be created
in order to secure these rights not restrict these rights.'
If we were consistent, we would allow Americans
to alter their consciousness-
but we're not doing that.
What we have today is that our government
is restricting our rights to alter our consciousness,
restricting our rights to put
whatever we decide in our body.
It's inconsistent with this promise of Americans
being able to live their life as they see fit.
So when we look back on
the civil rights movement, for example,
many of the leaders look to the Declaration of Independence
showing that many of the laws,
particularly like Jim Crow laws,
were inconsistent with this promise
of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
for its Black citizens.
And they were asking the country to live up to its ideals.
Dr. Martin Luther King for example said that,
'We have an obligation as citizens to disobey unjust laws.'
And I'm arguing that our drug laws are unjust.
One way that we can engage in civil disobedience
is that we can disobey that law.
And we disobey that law by coming out of the closet
about your drug use.
It would show the country
that its view of a drug user is wholly inaccurate.
The typical drug user is a middle-class person
who is well functioning, who contributes to their community.
And so, I wanted people to come out of the closet
so people could see this.
There are still potential consequences for me
being out of the closet about my drug use,
but it's far more important for us as Americans
to set the record straight-
and for us Americans to stand up on behalf of people
who have been persecuted merely
for acknowledging that they use drugs.
What parades as patriotism in the United States
is not real patriotism.
- 'America First! America First!'
- So these people who wave flags and claim to be patriots-
that's not necessarily patriotism.
Patriotism is fighting for other people's rights
like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The problem is many Americans
don't even know they have those birthrights.
So the bottom line is that when I think of my drug use,
I think about, "This is my prerogative!"
This is related to my liberty.
I have the choice to put in my body as I see fit,
and what I see fit to put into my body, that's my choice.
And I think of drug use in the same way.
As long as I am not preventing other people
from doing the same, there are no problems.