On June 7, 1776 Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion before the Continental Congress calling for the independence of the American colonies from the British Crown. That motion led directly to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. 

One might wonder what Delegate Lee would think about the country we live in 288 years later. The United States of America has the highest incarceration rate in the world. That fact alone would be enough to tell him that something had gone very wrong with their grand plan.

In 2012, Cannabis Prohibition led to the of arrest almost 750,000 people. That's 1 arrest every 48 seconds. 

Surely, Delegate Lee was not advocating for the creation of a government that would put millions of its citizens in jail without good cause. Would he have recognized a country where sick people and children were intentionally deprived of life saving medicine? And what would he make of his home state where a militarized police force now has the right to seize the assets of its citizenswithout having to charge them with an offense?

Luckily for us, we don't have to wonder what Delegate Lee, or any other signatory to the Declaration of Independence would have thought because they clearly explained the reasoning behind their revolutionary act.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." - Declaration of Independence

Most likely Mr. Lee would say "Its time to make some alterations."

Virginia NORML - Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Legal Cannabis

References

1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/29/one-marijuana-arrest-occu_n_204...

2. Picture http://endthelie.com/2012/09/20/mysterious-package-delivered-to-family-1...