Drug Enforcement Agency

Those who wish to control us will say we need to stop people from doing drugs as they have the potential to harm themselves and to harm society in general. It sounds logical, beneficial and justified. I hope I can demonstrate that it is neither, but instead is a 'tyranny of destruction' of our inalienable right to life.

It of course sounds trite and empty whenever someone says, "Hey they can't do that it’s unconstitutional." Our federal government does so much it "can't do" that we have become numb to what its powers actually are. Remember a tyranny is taking power over something in which the tyrant has no authority to do so.

In this, for that matter in any country the government gets it's authority from a grant of the people. Does it corrupt that power? You betcha it does. That is what tyranny is all about. The people of this country had given authority to their state governments and they in turn ceded power to the federal government. The federal government, actually the United States Constitution, created a rather large corporation. This was its charter; it's grant of power.

Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence stated that governments were instituted among men to secure inalienable rights. Did he mean to say to protect us from ourselves? Do we have a right to put into our bodies that which we choose? Does my neighbor have the right to come to my house and tell me I cannot drink ginseng tea? Do all of my neighbors have the right collectively? Does our government then somehow get this right by some sort of osmosis?

We have to take things to the basic to understand them sometimes. We as individuals grant a certain amount of power to government as we would grant power to a private guard service. However as soon as the guards try to use this power against our will, we then fire them. Is it not interesting to note how the government grows so quickly that it becomes the master instead of the servant and virtually cannot be fired?

That is how it is with so many federal agencies. Not only does government not have the power generally but also if it did the constitution has reserved such power to the states, not the federal government. Its charter limits it to being the foreign government of all the states, leaving domestic government to the states and to local governments. Period.

For the sake of argument let's assume that we have ceded to government the right to tell us what we put in our bodies regarding "drugs," then the next question is to which governments, federal, state, local or all of the above.

We have a Federal and 50 separate State Constitutions. They are the grants of power and authority from the people to government. If you look at the U. S. Constitution you will find that Article l sets up the Federal Legislative Branch and grants it a limited power, then Article ll sets up the Federal Executive Branch, Article lll sets up the Federal Judicial Branch. Article lV covers some limitation on both the states and federal government plus powers to each, but most notable limits the federal government's encroachment over the states under section 4. "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

A Republican Form of Government, what is that? Ah! "It is a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law." (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

Of course this applies to all powers not delegated to the Federal Government. We must now ask was the Federal Government delegated the authority to act on this domestic issue. I cannot find in the Constitution that grant of power.

Let us defer to Thomas Jefferson on this subject now.

"The extent of our country was so great, and its former division into distinct States so established, that we thought it better to confederate as to foreign affairs only. Every State retained its self-government in domestic matters, as better qualified to direct them to the good and satisfaction of their citizens, than a general government so distant from its remoter citizens and so little familiar with the local peculiarities of the different parts." --Thomas Jefferson to A. Coray, 1823. ME 15:483

"Our citizens have wisely formed themselves into one nation as to others and several States as among themselves. To the united nation belong our external and mutual relations; to each State, severally, the care of our persons, our property, our reputation and religious freedom." --Thomas Jefferson to Rhode Island Assembly, 1801. ME 10:262

"The States in North America which confederated to establish their independence of the government of Great Britain, of which Virginia was one, became on that acquisition, free and independent States, and as such, authorized to constitute governments, each for itself, in such form as it thought best. They entered into a compact (which is called the Constitution of the United States of America), by which they agreed to unite in a single government as to their relations with each other and with foreign nations, and as to certain other articles particularly specified. They retained at the same time each to itself, the other rights of independent government, comprehending mainly their domestic interest."--Thomas Jefferson: Declaration and Protest of Virginia, 1825. ME 17:442

"To the State governments are reserved all legislation and administration in affairs which concern their own citizens only, and to the federal government is given whatever concerns foreigners or the citizens of other States; these functions alone being made federal. The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the same government; neither having control over the other, but within its own department. There are one or two exceptions only to this partition of power." -- Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824. ME 16:47

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That" all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people." [X Amendment] To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition." --Thomas Jefferson: National Bank Opinion, 1991. ME 3:146

"The States supposed that by their tenth amendment, they had secured themselves against constructive powers." --Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson, 1823. ME 10:168

"The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the States are independent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations." --Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1800 ME 10:168

Mike Benoit