By Steve Kubby

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to re-examine the political bonds which have connected them to their government, and to reassume among the powers of the Earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of humanity requires that they should determine whether or not there are sufficient and irreconcilable causes which shall impel them to a separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women 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. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of our people; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former system of government. The history of the present federal government is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over our people. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

The federal government has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. Our people are forced to pay the highest taxes in our history, plus countless fees, fines, tickets, citations, and penalties wherever they travel and whatever they do.

The federal government has passed laws censoring free speech and restricting religious freedom, in direct violation of Article I of the Bill of Rights.

The federal government has made sobriety the state religion and now jails over a half a million people a year for the “crime” of using unapproved substances to alter their consciousness.

The federal government has openly defied popular, citizen-led initiatives on drug policy reform, refusing to allow any change in their law. In complete disregard for democracy, they have used public money to campaign against these initiatives and now, having lost, threaten physicians and patients who violate their law, leaving our people no choice but to engage in civil disobedience.

The federal government has declared war against its own citizens, if they so much as possess certain unapproved plants, bringing to bear the fearful might of its military and over one hundred different federal agencies empowered to use deadly force against our people.

The federal government has suspended our constitutional right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, allowing police to search and seize whatever they wish, so long as they are acting on “good faith” that a crime has taken place or that evidence is being destroyed.

The federal government has authorized police to seize private property, without due cause or compensation or even filing charges, directly violating Article IV of the Bill of Rights.

The federal government has charged, convicted and jailed citizens who have already served sentences for identical state crimes, in direct violation of Article V which forbids such “double jeopardy.”

The federal government has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing to inform Juries of their right to vote their conscience, or to allow Juries to exercise their constitutional right to judge not only the accused, but to judge the soundness of the law itself.

The federal government has made judges dependent on its Will alone, ordering judges to make their decisions based upon “mandatory minimum sentences,” thereby violating the separation of powers between the judicial, executive and legislative branches, which is so fundamental to our form of democracy.

The federal government has emptied our Treasury, creating so vast a debt, that forty percent of the personal taxes collected by the government must be paid just on the interest.

The federal government has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies of secret police, narcs, undercover agents, and paid informants, to spy upon and to coerce our people into obeying drug laws which are based upon puritanical beliefs that defy common sense.

The federal government has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power of local communities who are regularly subjected to aerial assaults by heavily armed drug agents. Our people are powerless to stop or in anyway protect themselves from repeated violations of their human rights and private property. Military raids now occur throughout our land against anyone who dares to grow Hemp, even though our Founding Fathers, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both grew and praised this remarkable plant.

The federal government has made a mockery of the election process, staging contrived political conventions which have already been bought and paid for by special interests, under the burden of a corrupt system that offers little choice on election day.

The federal government no longer serves the will of the People and has become a cancer, unable to stop growing and unable to stop spending, stealing from the future with massive debts that will take generations to repay.

The federal government has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction which is in direct violation of our Constitution and in direct violation of our Bill of Rights; giving the false appearance of public assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For protecting Agents of the DEA, FBI, CIA, and BATF by mock trials from punishment for murders which they committed on the Inhabitants of these states:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent and empowered a terrorist organization, the IRS, to obtain our compliance though coercion:

For squandering our public funds on exotic weapons and foreign wars, often to keep dictators in power and defense contractors employed, while our children go hungry, our Schools are neglected and our cities decay.

For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by Jury:

For imprisoning millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens for the pretended offenses of commerce in psychoactive plants:

For abolishing the free system of Tort laws, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its powers far beyond the scope granted to it by the Constitution, and in direct violation of Articles IX and X of the Bill of Rights:

For taking away our independence as sovereign citizens, abolishing our most valuable laws and altering fundamentally our form of government, demanding blind obedience to the failed policies of the past:

For suspending our own right to govern our bodies and our consciousness, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

For spraying poisons on our Hemp crops with the evil intention of doing great harm to our people who wish to use this natural herb for their medical relief or personal enjoyment.

For trafficking in cocaine and armaments as instruments of foreign policy, violating not only our Constitution, but the very trust which our People have placed their federal government.

For creating a climate of fear, intimidation and misery in order to obscure the failure of The federal government to address to real problems of poverty, violent crime, racism, pollution, and AIDS which now threaten the health and safety of our citizens.

For fouling the air, poisoning the soil, clear-cutting our forests, and contaminating our water, all for the economic gain of a privileged few.

For knowingly releasing radioactive and toxic wastes upon our people, resulting in an epidemic of cancer, birth defects and causing untold pain and suffering.

The federal government has abdicated government here by declaring us out of its protection and waging war against us.

The federal government has plundered our private property, invaded and seized our homes on the slightest of evidence, and destroyed the lives of our People, broken apart loving families, all in the name of a “War on Drugs.”

The federal government is at this time militarizing the “War on Drugs,” to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy a civilized nation.

The federal government has constrained our fellow citizens to become the informants and executioners of their friends and brethren, or to incriminate themselves through the widespread use of urine testing.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions to reduce or eliminate the cruel and unusual punishments for the use of drugs, to practice our own religious beliefs, including the sacred use of sacramental plants, and our right to use whatever medicines we wish have been answered only by repeated injury and acts of violence upon our people. A government, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our federal officials.

We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their congress to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.

We have reminded them of their oath of office, “To uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity to end this war on our own People and to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably bring about our downfall as a democratic society.

They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. All efforts to obtain justice for those persecuted for hemp crimes has been met with determined resistance to change. Even democratically passed initiatives have not altered their blind opposition to change. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, friends in peace.

Faced with such overwhelming and unresponsive tyranny, the people of California hereby authorize and demand that their state government officially secede from the United States, as provide for by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments of the Bill of Rights. In those amendments, the rights and powers not specifically granted to the federal government and not forbidden by the Constitution are reserved for the states and the people. We claim secession as a natural right of our people and as a constitutional right of our state.

We, therefore, the sovereign citizens of the free and independent California Republic, voting as a free people in a free election, appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of California, solemnly publish and declare.

That the California Republic be, and of right ought to be free and Independent; that citizens of the California Republic are absolved from all allegiance to The federal government, and that all political connection between them and The federal government is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent Republic, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do.

Furthermore, no citizen of the California Republic shall be required to pay any tax to the federal government, nor shall they be indebted, in any way for the financial liabilities of the federal government.

Upon the successful passage of this initiative, the federal government will have one year to vacate all lands, bases, and property within the Republic. Recognizing the hardship and financial burden this will place upon The federal government, the California Republic is hereby authorized to spend up to one trillion dollars to compensate The federal government, so long as the transition remains peaceful.

All tax rates and fees within the California Republic shall be frozen as of the date this initiative passes. Under no circumstances can the Republic increase fees, increase taxes, or add any new taxes or fees.

In all criminal cases, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, otherwise known as the original Bill of Rights, shall prevail. No exceptions or limitations to the Bill of Rights shall be accepted. Rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights shall not be infringed. Whenever police or prosecutors can be shown to be withholding information, providing false testimony or otherwise engaging in actions which violate the Bill of Rights, the case in question shall be automatically dismissed.

The passage of this voter initiative commits the California Republic to restoring our democratic freedoms and deprived of any weapon except the truth, can only represent themselves as patriotic citizens committed to resisting all laws which violate the Constitution and bringing to justice, all agents of The federal government, who use their office to commit crimes against our people.

And for the support of this voter Declaration of Independence, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Steve Kubby is a resident of South Lake Tahoe.