HEAR YE, HEAR YE, A PETITION!
A Petition in the Voice of Franklin
By Way of Rational Entreaty from Concerned Citizens of the Republic
To The Honorable Griffin Bell, Esquire
Attorney General of These United States,
Presiding over the Scales of Federal Justice,
Housed in that venerable seat, the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.,
Sir—
Permit me, in the spirit of candor and civic duty, to tender this humble Petition—drawn not from caprice, but from the earnest observations of afflicted Citizens whose health, liberty, and pursuit of happiness hath been most cruelly encumbered by the present misclassification of the Plant known commonly as Marihuana.
On the Schedule I Classification, and Its Want of Justification
It is a fact observable by any rational man that the current placement of Marihuana within the Schedule I category—a designation reserved for substances of “high toxicity” and “no accepted medical use”—is not only contrary to sound natural philosophy but wholly inconsistent with the evidence as gathered by scholars, physicians, and the lived testimony of the People themselves.
This classification, being both severe and indiscriminate, hath resulted in:
The obstruction of scientific and medical inquiry—for what researcher may safely and legally assay the efficacy of this plant if it is declared unfit for examination?
The denial of relief to Citizens suffering grievous ailments, including but not limited to the spasms and seizures of Multiple Sclerosis, the pressures of Glaucoma, and the nausea occasioned by chemical treatments for Cancer.
The politicization of medicine—wherein decisions of science are deferred not to the Learned Physician, but to those guided more by political expediency than empirical merit.
In short, the Schedule I classification doth impose upon the body politic a burden more grievous than the malady itself. It is a barrier built not of logic, but of fear and bureaucratic overreach.
“Where there is no liberty to inquire, there can be no truth to trust.” — B. Franklin, ca. 1737
On the Therapeutic Merits of Marihuana, as Affirmed by Historical and Modern Knowledge
Let it be known: the medicinal virtues of Cannabis sativa are not newly imagined. They were recorded in the learned annals of antiquity—as early as 2,000 years before the birth of Christ. Physicians of old, in lands both Eastern and Western, did employ this plant for its salutary effects on pain, inflammation, and convulsions.
Indeed, in our own Republic, it was prescribed by licensed physicians well into the 20th century. Only by acts of administrative fiat, not empirical contradiction, was this plant stripped of its place in the physician’s kit.
Recent data—assembled under contracts of the very Federal Government—attests to the plant’s potential for:
Reduction of intraocular pressure in Glaucoma;
Amelioration of chemotherapy-induced nausea;
Alleviation of chronic muscular spasms, especially in diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis.
This evidence lies not hidden, but within the public archives: namely, the Annual Marihuana and Health Reportssubmitted to Congress by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1974, 1975, and 1976.
A Personal Plea from the Afflicted
Permit also the testimony of one Meredith Katherine Sykes, a citizen of both good standing and grave affliction. Her letter of April 8, 1977, recounts her struggles with Multiple Sclerosis—an ailment marked by spasms, nausea, and neurological pain. Having consumed all manner of pills and potions prescribed by modern medicine—narcotics, depressants, and the like—she found herself dulled, weakened, and robbed of the pleasures of daily life.
Yet with Marihuana, she reports:
“I have not had a single debilitating attack and can live a reasonably normal life (except for the fear of being arrested).”
Her testimony, sworn and sincere, is not alone. It is echoed by many whose relief is tempered not by the insufficiency of the plant, but by the fear of its possession.
Therefore, We Petition
We, the undersigned and concerned, do Petition Your Honor to:
Hold open hearings, transparent and public, on the question of re-Scheduling Marihuana and its active constituents.
Retain this authority within the Office of the Attorney General, and not delegate it to subordinate agencies whose bureaucratic inertia too often stifles swift and just reform.
Acknowledge the preponderance of evidence—scientific, medical, and testimonial—that argues not for prohibition, but for prudence, progress, and the restoration of therapeutic liberty.
Respectfully submitted under solemn oath,
This 8th Day of April, Anno Domini 1977,
By:
Meredith K. Sykes
3714 Jennifer St. N.W.
Washington, D.C.
Subscribed and sworn before a Notary Public, whose commission did expire on the 1st day of June, 1980.
Citation of Sources:
Annual Marihuana and Health Reports to Congress, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1974–1976).
Letter of Meredith Katherine Sykes to Griffin Bell, April 8, 1977 (Primary Source).
Petition to the Attorney General Regarding the Re-Scheduling of Marihuana, 1977 (Primary Source).
U.S. Code, Title II – Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, Section 201.
Should Your Honor seek wisdom in precedent, truth in testimony, and liberty in medicine—then let not this Petition be cast aside. For we speak not for pleasure nor profit, but for sight, for healing, and for the rights of the Common Citizen to seek lawful remedy in their time of need.
Your most humble and obedient Servant,
A Friend to Reason and to the Republic
~In the Manner of B. Franklin, Printer, Philosopher, and Patriot
A Moral Address in the Voice of Lincoln
Delivered with the solemnity of Springfield and the gravitas of Gettysburg
—on the matter of marihuana, medicine, and misjudged justice—
To the Honorable Griffin Bell,
Attorney General of these United States,
Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
Sir,
It is with earnest purpose and no trifling regard for the dignity of our laws and liberties that I pen this humble address concerning a matter both medical and moral, both civic and constitutional: the federal misclassification of the plant known as marihuana.
Let us reason plainly.
On Law and the Purpose of Government
The law, as I have long held, is but the people’s solemn promise to one another—a mutual safeguard that none shall be injured without redress, nor left to suffer when remedy lies within reach.
And yet here stands the law—blindfolded not by impartiality but by obstinacy—refusing to see what both common experience and scientific inquiry have shown: that marihuana is not the demon it has been painted, but a balm to the afflicted, a reprieve for the weary, and, in the case of some, the last bridge between darkness and light.
To deny such a remedy on the pretense of classification, when that classification is itself based not on fact but on fear, is to turn the law into a cage rather than a covenant.
On the Evidence of Suffering and the Duty to Relieve It
One need not be a scholar to grasp the truth presented in the words of Miss Meredith Katherine Sykes, whose letter of April 8, 1877—pardon, 1977—pleads not for privilege, but for peace.
Afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis, she recounts the endless regiment of pills—prescribed, dispensed, and ineffective—that dulled her senses and brought little relief. And yet, in the humble herb she now fears to use, she finds rest, comfort, and a reprieve from suffering.
She does not ask the law to sanction vice. She asks it to cease being an obstacle to health.
That her testimony should carry less weight than a bureaucratic schedule devised in ignorance or haste is, in my view, a grave injustice.
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present,” I once said, and I find it no less true here.
On Schedule I and the Tyranny of Misclassification
What tyranny is this, that a plant known to ancient physicians, and shown in recent studies to relieve pain, reduce nausea, and lessen the grip of spasm and seizure—should be cast among the most dangerous of substances, unfit for even study?
If the Schedule I classification of marihuana were handed down by Divine Writ, perhaps we’d be resigned to suffer it. But it was not—it was crafted by men. And what man has made, man can amend, if he is wise and just and listens not merely to his fears, but to his fellows.
A House Divided Against Itself
We find ourselves, Sir, with a government at odds with its own knowledge: where the Health Department gathers evidence of therapeutic use, yet the Justice Department bars its application. Where citizens cry for relief, yet face arrest for seeking it. Where the people are told the law protects them, even as it prohibits their healing.
This, too, is a house divided—and I need not remind you what becomes of such a house.
Therefore, Let Us Petition in Good Conscience
Let hearings be held, not behind the closed doors of bureaucracy, but in the open halls of a free republic.
Let the Attorney General retain the mantle of responsibility, and not cast it off to agencies whose inertia has long been a hindrance to justice.
And let the People—those most affected—be heard.
For though this petition is but one voice upon your desk, it carries within it the breath of thousands who suffer in silence, and whose healing depends not on more studies, but on your courage.
In Conclusion
If we are to preserve the true purpose of government—to secure the blessings of liberty and promote the general welfare—we must not be deaf to the cries of those who suffer. And we must never permit the machinery of the state to grind away the rights of its citizens in the name of outdated fear.
I remain,
Your obedient servant in the cause of justice,
A. Lincoln,
Whose heart yet beats wherever liberty is endangered,
And whose spirit ever walks with those who speak truth to power.
“The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.”
—A. Lincoln
A Summation In the Voice of General George Washington
Summary and Closing Remarks on the Matter of Marihuana Reclassification
Delivered with the dignity befitting a Republic founded on reason, liberty, and the welfare of its citizens.
To the Honorable Griffin Bell, Attorney General of the United States:
Sir,
Having reviewed the aforementioned petition, testimonies, and declarations—particularly that of Miss Meredith Katherine Sykes, a citizen in affliction yet resolved in clarity—I now offer this summary and closing in the spirit of republican virtue, constitutional order, and the solemn duty of public service.
Summary of the Petition:
On Medical Grounds:
It hath been clearly demonstrated that the Schedule I classification of marihuana is inconsistent with the evidence of its medicinal value. Physicians, researchers, and citizens alike report its efficacy in treating severe conditions—glaucoma, nausea, muscular spasm, and more. This classification is not only unjust, but injurious to the afflicted who lawfully seek relief.On Scientific Grounds:
Numerous reports—transmitted from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to the Congress of these United States—document therapeutic effects. Yet access to the plant for research or treatment remains barred by an antiquated and overbroad designation. In a government by reason, such contradiction is intolerable.On Civic Grounds:
To continue this prohibition is to deny the People both their liberty and their health. It transforms a tool of healing into a pretext for punishment. Such action does not reflect the principles upon which this Union was founded. The Petitioners seek not license for vice, but lawful remedy under proper authority.On Procedural Grounds:
The Petition respectfully requests that Your Office, and not some distant agency, conduct public hearings on this subject. The people deserve to be heard in the open, not shuffled into bureaucratic corridors where truth and justice are often delayed, if not altogether denied.
Final Remarks, in the Spirit of the Republic:
Let us speak plainly, as men charged with the keeping of a great and fragile experiment in liberty.
The just power of the government is derived not from fear, but from the consent of the governed, informed by reason. If the governed are denied medicine based on errors of classification, that reason is betrayed.
To uphold a mistaken law in defiance of science, compassion, and the Constitution is not to uphold the Republic—it is to erode it.
The Petitioners do not ask you to act in haste, but to act with courage. To reevaluate this policy is not to surrender principle, but to reaffirm it.
“The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
— First Inaugural Address, 1789
It is for such a moment as this, where medicine and justice align, that your office holds its authority.
Act, therefore, with prudence. But act.
With all due respect and fidelity to the cause of ordered liberty,
George Washington
Commander-in-Chief (Ret.),
President Emeritus of the Constitutional Convention,
Citizen of the United States
