A COLUMN BY JOHN SINCLAIR
Hi everybody and welcome to the annual Hash Bash issue of the MMR, this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of the marijuana legalizationevent that takes place on the Diag at the Universityof Michigan every year except 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation as a live gathering.
Ryan Stanton of mlive.comreports thatAnn Arbor’s 50th Hash Bash will be a virtual event for the second straight year because of the pandemic, but a traditional smoke-in protest is also planned by veteran marijuana activists.
According to Stanton, organizers of the annual Hash Bash marijuana rally in Ann Arbor are planning to hold the event virtually for the second year in a row, featuring a long list of speakers and entertainers hosted by former TV personality and contemporary weed activist Anqunette“Q” Sarfoh as master of ceremonies.
The Hash Bash Planning Committee bills the online livestream as a free, variety-show-style production featuring activists and entertainers from around the state and country, with former Fox 2 News anchor AnqunetteSarfoh as master of ceremonies.
As for which event will be the official 50th Hash Bash, the people behind the virtual edition have been among the official Hash Bash organizers for the past decade, organizer Nick Zettell said.
With the continuing spread of COVID-19, organizers of the virtual event want to make sure they’re doing their best both as stewards of the tradition of Hash Bash and also as community members who want to protect attendees, Ann Arbor residents and UM students, Zettell said.
“The last thing we would ever want is to contribute to the spread of this virus during the pandemic,” he said. “It would be absolutely irresponsible of us to organize a large-scale event like Hash Bash has been in the past.”
The speakers’ lineup includes Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, former Detroit Red Wing Darren McCarty, former Detroit Lion Calvin Johnson, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, state Sen. Jeff Irwin and John Sinclair, a poet whose imprisonment for pot led to the organization of the first Hash Bash protest in 1972.
Entertainment is being provided by Michigan musicians such as Laith Al-Saadi and Tom Wall, as well as a performance by outrageous cannabis enthusiast and drag queen LaganjaEstranja.
Brook said he’s not planning any speeches or entertainment for his April 3 protest on the Diag and he doesn’t expect it to be a huge rally like Hash Bash has been in the past.
But Brook says he’s not sitting out another year and he’s organizing what he considers the “official” event: a smoke-in protest on the University of Michigan Diag.
“If you ask me, Hash Bash happens on the Diag, so I would say that the official Hash Bash is on the Diag, and these people who are afraid to appear in public are now doing something virtually,” Brook said. “I’m at war with these people.”
Brook has created a “50th Annual Ann Arbor Hash Bash” event page on Facebook, announcing plans for an in-person protest at the traditional spot on the Diag at high noon on Saturday, April 3.
There’s no planned program of speakers or entertainers and Adam isn’t sure how many people will actually show up or what will happen other than cannabis enthusiasts lighting up joints and conversing. But so far over 500 people have responded they’re “going” and another 1,100 said they’re “interested.”
Brook encourages anyone who shows up to observe COVID-19 social-distancing guidelines and wear masks.
“There won’t be anybody passing joints — you’d be a fool to do that today — but you can unmask and smoke a joint safely, just like you can sit in a restaurant and unmask,” he said.
“It’s a smoke-in. By being there, we are protesting the current laws associated with marijuana. That’s how it started, it’s always been about that, and you can’t protest virtually.
Among his gripes about current laws are that it’s still illegal to smoke pot in public, Brook said.
“The protest isn’t going to end just because a few laws may be passed in our favor,” he said.
There won’t be an amplified sound system, as the university requires a student group to pull a permit for that, but no permit is needed to assemble, Brook said.
“The Constitution is our permit for assembly,” he said, adding the right to protest doesn’t go away in a pandemic. “So, I don’t expect any concern from the police.”
UM Deputy Police Chief Melissa Overton referred questions about the protest to the university’s public affairs division, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
University of Michigan police parked their cars on the UM Diag to prevent anyone from attempting to participate in what would have been the 49th Hash Bash on April 4, 2020. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, organizers instead hosted a virtual event in keeping with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-home order at the time.
The last in-person Hash Bash in April 2019 — the first with marijuana legalized in Michigan — drew a record crowd of well over 10,000 people from around the state and beyond.
While Brook estimates thousands still could gather on the Diag while remaining socially distanced next month, he’s not really looking to draw a big crowd, he said.
“There are hardcore activists who will show up,” he said. “I expect John Sinclair to show up. He and I will be there, and past that I can’t tell you much,” Ben Horner and Tim Beck from MMR are also expected to attend, Brook said.
“Of course, this opposing group has decided to call us traditionalists. If I’m considered a traditionalist, then they’re newbies. We don’t get this virtual thing.”
The virtual event will commemorate accomplishments and focus on the need for federal legalization and repairing harms inflicted by the war on drugs, organizers said.
They’re partnering with businesses to make it a successful broadcast, expected to last several hours, and benefit two charities: the John Sinclair Foundation and the Michigan Cannabis Prisoner Freedom Fund.
“We’re really excited about the virtual Hash Bash,” Zettell said. “We really want to provide people the opportunity to attend Hash Bash and see a lot of different speakers — politicians, athletes, local community members — in a virtual protest against current marijuana laws that still need to be reformed.”
Among the factors that contributed to the decision to host Hash Bash virtually again were the identification of a new COVID-19 “variant of concern” in Michigan and the fact that it has been identified on the UM campus, organizers said.
If some people choose to skip the virtual broadcast and head down to the Diag, Zettell said he hopes they do it in the spirit of protesting cannabis laws. But that will be a focus of the virtual event, including speeches by formerly incarcerated people talking about how brutal the war on drugs has been and policy updates from lawmakers, he said.
“We’ll be able to talk about state laws and local laws that need reforming, because the marijuana law in Michigan is still not right,” Zettell said. “And that includes some issues with expungement that we really want to see, and also greater access to research, and advancing the social equity aspects of the cannabis industry — the inclusion of communities of color and communities that have been disproportionately negatively impacted by the war on drugs.”
While his focus is on doing that virtually right now, Zettell expects a big in-person Hash Bash in April 2022.
“And while this is the 50th Hash Bash, next year will be the 50th anniversary of the first Hash Bash, and we really hope to make it a blowout and a really exciting community day,” he said.
Turning back to Adam Brook and our seasoned colleagues in the struggle to make Hash Bash count, we can pretty much assure you of its continuing success. After all, we’ve had 50 years of practice so far!
FREE THE WEED!
—Detroit
March 25, 2021
© 2021 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
