What Does “Inalienable” Mean?

When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he chose the word "inalienable" to describe something that cannot be taken away. According to Webster's Dictionary, the word "inalienable" means "absolute, sacred, and incapable of being surrendered."

Jefferson believed that God bestowed on all human beings, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as “inalienable rights.” Further, he stated that congress cannot take away those rights.

Anyone who has studied the war on drugs over the last century knows that Jefferson was a dreamer. A large number of self-serving individuals in powerful positions have talked Americans into giving up those rights for a greater good. This greater good is an unlikely fantasy called "a drug-free America."

Why is it that after 93 years of persecution, one trillion dollars of our tax money and twenty million prison sentences, illegal drugs are cheaper, more potent and more available than ever before? Because it is a war against what people want. Prohibitionists fail to understand that enormous profits – not morality, regulates the illicit drug market.

When the drug war becomes too expensive to prosecute, and enough of us wake up to the truth – then we will reconsider the 19th Century policy of education, taxation and regulation.

For more information or to help law enforcement reform drug laws visit www.leap.cc (law enforcement against prohibition.)

James Wiley

48 Woodland Ave

San Anselmo, CA 94960

415-453-8715

Updated May 2011