"If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will be in as sorry a state as are the souls who live under tyranny"
-Thomas Jefferson
Prohibition...goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control mans' appetite through legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not even crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our Government was founded."- Abraham Lincoln
What do the War on Drugs, 18th amendment (prohibition of alcoholic beverages), Drinking age of 21(or any drinking age for that matter), and Obamacare and the individual mandate to purchase healthcare insurance or face financial and even criminal sanctions for civil disobedience of these laws have in common? They all restrict your constitutional right to control your own body and make medical and even non-medical decisions over your health so long as it does not come at the expense of someone’s life, liberty and property, including financial property. For anyone concerned about children the parents are responsible for their so called “minor” children and parents have a right to decide what medical care their children receive and what are children eat & drink unless the actions of the parent(s) are actually harming the child or will imminently harm the child. The following constitutional amendments protect our right to do with our bodies what we want to do:
Fifth Amendment
“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. ”
Eighth Amendment
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Tenth Amendment
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Thirteenth Amendment
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Fourteenth Amendment
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Twenty-Sixth Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
The 5th and 14th amendments require due process before life, liberty and property can be taken away. Prohibition strips you of your right to eat & drink as you please and your body is your ultimate priceless property. Without self-ownership, you have no identity and no life of your own. The right to life means not only the right to be alive and free from unwanted harm, but to pursue one’s life as he/she pleases even if the lifestyle the individual chooses is unpopular. Our creator has given us life and man cannot control the creator who is also Mother Nature.
Another authoritarian approach to socialized healthcare is forced vaccinations. Massachusetts once had them under the Devil Patrick regime where children would be vaccinated against the will of the parents and the children themselves. That’s Stalinist totalitarianism there for you. Governor Rick Perry or should I call him Prick Perry of Texas currently seeking nomination for Republican candidacy for US president created an executive order forcing young school girls against the will of parents and children themselves. Prick Perry’s dictator decree was overruled by the legislator of course.
Anti-Drug crowds would say that drugs and underage drinking are a public health issue and the authoritarians believe it is their right to regulate the health of people and develop healthy lifestyles throughout the land. This sounds like Obamacare ideology where government controls your health and healthcare through one size fits all and bureaucracy and there is no rational basis for forcing someone to abide by a certain lifestyle. Government justifies legal drinking age of 21 on the grounds of curbing drunk driving and alcohol abuse. The best way to deal with drunk driving is to go after drunk drivers, not social responsible drinkers under 21 because drunk driving and underage drinking are two different things. Using the legal drinking age of 21 to combat drunk driving is like putting Muslim-Americans in internment camps to combat terrorism. To combat terrorism, go after the terrorists or conspirators of terrorist attacks, not Muslim-Americans who have done nothing wrong. Imposing a legal drinking age against someone’s will is not the best way and certainly not the least restrictive way to solve the problem of drunk driving and is preemptive and presumes Mr. and Mrs. Twenty and under guilty and irresponsible because they COULD POTENTIALLY drive drunk and abuse alcohol. Even water can be abuse by drinking too much of it and you can even die from water intoxication and our civil liberties might as well be thrown into the grave in order to fight crime like in North Korea where people are parented by a tyrannical nanny-state regime where people suffer from famines due to extreme government regulation of agriculture. Government is a necessary evil that should only secure the blessings of life and liberty. The preamble of the constitution endorses this.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
General welfare does not mean individual welfare like entitlement programs and government funded projects. Domestic tranquility does not mean legislating the health of the people and assuming the role of the traditional parents. Using the state to interfere with the lifestyle choices of the people and the parents is an act of violence against the people. Our US troops have been fighting for our freedoms oversees and are getting killed and hundreds of under 21 year old troops have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and never had the chance to legally drink alcohol and buy handguns from FFL dealers. These troops were treated as children in terms of alcoholic beverages and handguns as well as carrying concealed firearms but punished as adults in war and were considered adults and responsible under criminal law. Treating someone as a child and punishing them as an adult violates the principle of justice that our founders established and it violates due process because if someone is considered an adult in a court of law and can be either charged as an adult for most or all violations of criminal law and/or be sued in court, that person is responsible to make adult decisions. Any decisions made on the behalf of the child are made by the parent or guardian. Brain development is a very complex study and everyone’s brain develops at different paces and does not magically develop fully at the age of 21 or any other fixed chronological age, so all efforts to use brain development to justify age based limits.
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