We find ourselves in the sweltering heat of another July.  As the nation prepares to stuff its face with charred meat and blow shit up in the name of freedom, it’s high time we addressed the elephant in the room, or rather, the blundering mammoth tap-dancing across our collective consciousness.

Let's face it.  We’re living in a country where you can buy enough sugar laden ultra processed food to make the entire country obese, but God help you if you want to expand your mind with a bit of homegrown or a psychedelic fungus. It’s a savage joke, a cosmic prank played on us by the bureaucrats and moral crusaders who wouldn’t know true freedom if it smacked them in the face.

The so called War on Drugs has been a spectacular shit show, a half century binge of political grandstanding and civil liberties violations that would make the Founding Fathers projectile vomit their small batch whiskey.  We’ve turned millions of Americans into criminals for the crime of altering their own consciousness by choosing plants over pills, while Big Pharma peddles legal heroin and amphetamines like candy at a school fair, and humanity swirls with mental health issues.

But here’s the kicker...the same plants and compounds that sent countless souls to the slammer are now being hailed as miracle cures.  Cannabis, psilocybin, and MDMA, once the bogeymen of suburban nightmares, are now the darlings of cutting-edge psychiatry. From PTSD to depression, from chronic pain to end-of-life anxiety, these substances are showing promise where Big Pharma has failed.  It’s enough to make your head spin faster than a acid-fueled Grateful Dead drum solo.

The hypocrisy is so thick you could cut it with a knife and smoke it.  Isn’t it time we took a page from our Founding Fathers’ book?  These were men who grew hemp, brewed their own booze, and probably indulged in a bit of opium now and then (it was the 18th century, after all).  They understood that personal freedom includes the right to alter one’s own consciousness.

We trust people to choose their leaders, their spouses, and their religions, but heaven forbid they choose to eat a mushroom or smoke a joint.  It’s a perverse form of cognitive fascism, a war not just on drugs, but on the very nature of consciousness itself.

But the times are a-changing, as some drug-addled poet once crooned.  The walls of prohibition are crumbling, and cognitive liberty is stirring from its long slumber.  Across this fair nation, people are waking up to the radical notion that maybe, just maybe, we should be allowed to decide what goes into our own bodies and minds.  But it’s not enough. We need full federal legalization and an end to the criminalization of personal choice.

So this Independence Day, as you watch the sky explode in a government sanctioned display of controlled substances, remember this; true freedom isn’t just about waving a flag or singing the national anthem.  It’s about the freedom to explore the vast, weird landscapes of your own mind, whether that’s through meditation, medication, or a heroic dose of psilocybin.

It’s time for a new American revolution, a psychedelic Declaration of Independence.  We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all humans are created equal, endowed with the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as they damn well please.  Let’s recognize that true freedom includes the freedom to get high, trip balls, or stay stone-cold sober, whatever floats your star spangled boat.

So light up, tune in, and drop out of this archaic system of cognitive control.  The future is coming, and it’s gonna be one hell of a trip.  Happy fucking Fourth, you beautiful freaks. May your fireworks be bright, your barbecues be smoky, and your consciousness be eternally free.