METH UPDATE: INDEPENDENCE DAY

(With all due respect to T.J. and associates)

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a person
to dissolve the bonds which connect them to objects of enslavement,
and to assume that among the powers of Nature and Nature's God is the
power to equal station, a decent respect of the self and others
requires that he or she declare the causes which impel separation.

I hold these truths to be self evident, that before drugs I was
created equal, that I was endowed by my Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these rights were life, liberty from
drugs and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights I may
need help from those who derive their power from having walked the
path of freedom before me and now consent to lighting the way. That
whosoever becomes destructive toward my quest for a drug free life is
subject to the right of this person to have that bond of friendship
abolished, and to institute new friendships, laying a foundation on
such principles and organizing new powers in such a form, as to myself
and them to seem most likely to effect our safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that friendships 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 drugs and associations to which they have become accustomed. But
when a long train of abuses by drugs and the corresponding
associations evinces a design to reduce me under absolute despotism,
it is my right, it is my duty, to throw off these drugs and
associations and to provide new guards for my future security. Such
has been my patient sufferance; and such is now the necessity which
constrains me to alter my former life. My history with drugs is a
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over me. To prove
this, let the facts about drugs, associates and my history be
submitted to a candid world.

While under their influence, I cannot assent to laws necessary for the
public good.

While under their influence, immediate and pressing priorities seem
meaningless.

While under their influence, I relinquish my ability to represent
myself honorably.

While under their influence, I find myself at unusual and
uncomfortable distances from everything I hold dear.

While under their influence, I am fatigued into compliance with their
will.

While under their influence, I am held under their legislative powers
which appear immune to annihilation.

While under their influence, I remain exposed to all dangers of
invasion without and convulsions within.

While under their influence, all that I have remains under threat of
appropriation in their service.

While under their influence, I am taxed by the expense of my habits
without my consent.

While under their influence, I am subjected to the mock trial of
street credibility, which inverts every decent act.

While under their influence, I end up quartering large armies of
useless associates to gain access to drugs.

While under their influence, I may see many trials by jury, but more
often cop a plea to indefensible behaviors.

While under their influence, my self governance is
abdicated.

While under their influence, boundaries blur and lives are destroyed
with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in
barbarous ages.

In every stage of these oppressions I have complained profusely, as if
I was not contributing to my demise. I called my ruler unfit and yet
returned to exalt again and again. I was warned of the jurisdiction
drugs would gain over me, and did appeal to the native justice of my
common kindred, but they were deaf to my pleas for freedom, offering
more of the chains that bound me. I must therefore acquiesce to the
needs of my soul, announce my separation from enemies in addiction who
may only return as friends in recovery.

I, therefore, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the
rectitude of my intentions, do, on this 18th day of September, in the
year of 1997, by the authority of sensibilities and sensitivities,
solemnly publish and declare, that this human, by rights and
responsibilities, is absolved of all allegiances to drugs and
associates who use them. And for the support of this declaration, with
a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, do mutually
pledge to my family, friends and community, to live drug free with
sacred honor, for this is the only true path to independence.

- - Don F.