HASH BASH NO. 40

Ann Arbor Fills With Revelers and Speakers, but Who's Blowing Smoke?

There were googobs of people out at the 40th annual Ann Arbor Hash
Bash on Saturday, the celebration of all things cannabis. One news
report I saw put the number of revelers at 6,000. I'm not sure how
that number was calculated, but I say there were googobs of people
who defied the chilly weather and laws against the public and
recreational use of marijuana.

"It was the most successful one we've had in the past 10 years,"
organizer and emcee Adam Brook told me after the bash. "There've been
some years when the weather was bad that we didn't have very many
people, but when the weather is good we've had up to 12,000 people out there."

When the first Hash Bash was celebrated on U-M's Diag in 1972, the
vast majority of the crowd in attendance last week wasn't even born
yet, and the concept of medical marijuana was just a twinkle in the
eyes of activists. But one thing that connects the first bash with
this year's is John Sinclair.

Some of you may know Sinclair as the guy who writes this column every
other week. Back then, he was fresh out of state prison after serving
two-and-a-half years of a 10-year sentence for selling two joints;
the Michigan Supreme Court had ruled the state marijuana laws
unconstitutional. Sinclair and other activists came up with the idea
of an April 1 event to take advantage of a small gap of time when
there was no marijuana law on the books in Michigan. The first and
several subsequent Hash Bashes were pretty much parties. This year's
Bash was mostly a political rally defending the medical marijuana
laws, although there was some talk of out-and-out legalization.

Ann Arbor activist Chuck Ream said, "We are going to have major
threats this year," refering to the radically different ways
Michigan's medical marijuana law has been interpreted differently by
activists, on one hand, and law enforcement officials, on the other.
"Fight back. Dare to kick ass. When we think about patients, we know
we have no option to fail."

There was a stream of speakers, each apparently allotted about two
minutes; Brook kept the program moving along. Brook, who's been the
main Bash organizer the past 20 years, addressed the recent bust at
his home in Royal Oak. "I want to apologize," he said. "I got busted.
I was breaking no law and they came after me. The motherfuckers came
into my house and I wasn't even there."

On Feb. 22, Brook, a registered medical marijuana patient, was
charged with eight felony counts after a January raid when police
found a triple-beam scale (a traditional tool of dealers), marijuana
(allegedly more than a pound, although the amount is in dispute) and
marijuana candy, two loaded handguns, a loaded shotgun and a
bulletproof vest, according to a police report. Brook has a former
felony conviction and is not allowed to be around guns.

"They found my wife's guns," said Brook. "I was charged with seven
gun crimes. They've dropped four of them already." Regardless of the
legal cloud hanging over his head ("I expect to beat this," he told
me), Brook handled his duties well. "We knew this would be big," Brook said.

The political rockstar of the event was New Mexico's former
Republican Governor Gary Johnson, who said, "We need to legalize
marijuana in this country. Ninety percent of the problem is
prohibition-related, not use-related. ... 46 percent of Americans
support legalization. We're two years away from a national tipping point."

Hmmm, that would be just after the next presidential election. During
his introduction, Brook said that Johnson was running for president
in that election. But, after the rally, Johnson played coy on the
subject. When I asked him if he was really planning on running, he
said, "Others are saying it." Then he went into some mumbo jumbo
about fundraising and federal laws that essentially seemed to say
that he's running but can't legally say that right now. "Sorry to cop
out," he apologized.

"I've smoked marijuana in my life and drank alcohol," said Johnson.
"I don't do either today, but I think that marijuana is a lot safer
than alcohol. It might be a bad choice, but the last thing that it is
is criminal."

When in front of the crowd, Johnson only talked about marijuana and
vaguely alluded to other issues. When I pressed him about those other
issues he started talking about fiscal austerity and bad unions. I
didn't get too far with that line of questioning. A young woman
writing for a webzine came up and asked him a question about
marijuana and walked away after his answer. She seemed taken by the
fact that she was actually talking to a potential presidential
candidate. (A bit of advice if she is reading: Work on your follow-up
questions.) Then a guy with apparent communist tendencies came up and
started screaming about Johnson's lack of class analysis. (Not a good
approach if you actually want to be heard.)

However, the general vibe of the pro-marijuana crowd seems to be in
support of anyone who'll let them smoke in peace. This is something
that has concerned me about the medical marijuana and legalization
movement. The political rhetoric has focused on that issue and
doesn't seem to regard anything else as pertinent. There was
muttering in the crowd against President Barack Obama because the DEA
indeed has gone after some medical marijuana dispensaries after
saying he would leave them alone. I heard one guy say, "I voted for
him before, but I won't do it again." Be careful. There are those who
will give you marijuana while nailing your backside to the wall in
all sorts of other ways. If that's your only concern, well so be it.

In other political content: Marvin Marvin, a longtime local activist,
announced that he plans to run for U.S. senator in the Democratic
primary against incumbent Debbie Stabenow; there was discussion of a
proposed ordinance that would set marijuana as the lowest priority
for Kalamazoo police, and lots of rhetoric against state Attorney
General Bill Schuette.

"That SOB is trying to shut our law down," said Tim Beck, who was one
of the authors of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. Beck also
announced that the Coalition for a Safer Detroit is making headway
with its effort to put legalization before Detroit voters. A Wayne
County Circuit Judge backed the Detroit Election Board on keeping the
question off the ballot. Beck announced that Safer Detroit's appeal
has been granted expedited status. "We are going to be on the
ballot," he predicted.

After all the speeches, the crowd retired to the Monroe Street Fair
for some serious toking. There had been marijuana smoke wafting in
the air during the rally, but in some areas at the fair there was air
wafting on the marijuana smoke. And the crowd was so dense you had to
elbow your way through to get anywhere. There was rock and reggae,
and there were street performers, dispensary tours (despite medical
marijuana activists' avoidance of it, the D-word was liberally tossed
about throughout the day), compassion club tables, spliffs of many
shapes and sizes, and even some hash getting burned. About the only
thing keeping it from being a great festival was the lack of food
booths. But there were some in the crowd surreptitiously selling a
variety of marijuana-laced edibles.

As Sinclair declared to the crowd as he took the mic, "Happy Hash
Bash, everybody."