Gramma’s FOR Ganja Organization
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES
1.
We are convinced that de facto prohibition of the Cannabis sativa L. plant
species is fundamentally wrong,
a)
Because
it conflicts with the basic American principles of local home rule and destroys
the balance, established by the framers of our government, between powers
delegated to the Federal authority and those reserved to the sovereign states or
to the people themselves,
b)
And
because its attempt to impose total abstinence by national governmental fiat
ignores the truth that no law will be respected or can be enforced unless
supported by the moral sense and the common consciousness of the communities
affected by it.
2.
We are convinced that de facto prohibition, wrong in principle, has been equally
disastrous in consequences in the hypocrisy, the corruption, the tragic loss of
life and the appalling increase of crime which have attended the abortive
attempt to enforce it; in the checking of the steady growth of temperance which
had preceded it; in the shocking effect it has had upon the youth of the nation;
in the impairment of constitutional guarantees of individual rights; in the
weakening of the sense of solidarity between the citizen and the government
which is the only sure basis of a country’s strength.
The
Gramma’s FOR Ganja Organization records these convictions and declares:
That this de facto prohibition of the
Cannabis sativa L. species of plants has demonstrated its adoption to be a
grievous mistake, persistence in which will constitute a continuing threat to
our country’s well being.
That in the removal from the Federal laws of
provisions, which should never have been put into it, lies the only reasonable
hope of relief from conditions, which have become intolerable.
That in our judgment the return to each state of its former power to allow the growth, sale and transportation of the Cannabis sativa L. species, within its own limits should be accompanied by adequate state regulatory enactment’s and responsive to the sentiments of the people and therefore capable of enforcement.
That such enactment’s would drive the crime breeding trafficking of the present day to the same extinction that has already met other prohibitive legislation.
That the Federal government, exercising its
power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce should protect each state in
the enforcement of its state laws according to its true function.
That the people of the United States who
have never had the opportunity to pass judgment upon this question should be
given such an opportunity and that therefore, that this may be accomplished in
an orderly way and in accord with legal procedure, we urge the Congress to
submit to conventions of the people in the several states rather than to the
legislatures thereof, a resolution for the repeal of this de facto prohibition.
Boston, Massachusetts, April 20, 2003