A Column By John Sinclair
Hi everybody, I’m glad you could join me for this issue to celebrate my ten years with the Michigan Marijuana Report, starting with the Hash Bash issue in 2011 and continuing for the next 120 months until the present moment.
For a guy who will be 80 years old if he makes it to October, I consider this quite an achievement and hope I can continue it until my mind and typing fingers quit working for me.
I’ve been writing columns for various publications since I started publishing my work in the very early 1960s when I was an undergraduate at the Flint College of the University of Michigan. I wrote a column for the school paper, The Word, which I served as editor, and when I moved to Detroit to attend graduate school at Wayne State University, I hooked up with an artist and gallery owner named Kelly Williams to contribute a column to his magazine called Art & Artists.
My first paying work as a writer ($8.00 every two weeks!) came with my appointment in 1964 as the Detroit correspondent for the jazz magazine in Chicago called downbeat, a job I acquired when Harold McKinney and a group of Detroit jazz musicians insisted that they needed me in the position in order to secure proper Coverage for the Detroit Jazz Scene.
Since then I’ve written for so many magazines and occasional publications that I can’t even remember all of them, but they include a popular arts column called “The Coat Puller” starting with the second issue of the Fifth Estate; columns for the Detroit and Ann Arbor Sun newspapers, the San Francisco Oracle, Blues Access, Wavelength, Off Beat, An Honest Tune, and others too numerous to mention. But no column assignment has ever lasted 10 years like this one, and I’m very happy to still be here.
FREE THE WEED of course is centered on the struggle to legalize marijuana and all drugs for medical and recreational use, so I’ll get to the meat of the matter in a minute, but like all columnists I have the right and responsibility to incorporate my thoughts and feelings about all possible things into my monthly musings. This month marks some milestones in the legalization battle and I’ll start with a subject very dear to my heart: the institution of “marijuana consumption lounges” in the state of Michigan.
Ryan Stanton claims that Michigan’s first commercial marijuana consumption lounge is coming to Ann Arbor, allowing onsite consumption of cannabis products downtown at 336 S. Ashley Street. Permit conditions state the lounge can be used only by customers of the dispensary already in business next door and their guests.
Reservations will be required to access to the lounge, with 45-minute blocks free for customers and patients who can show a same-day receipt from the dispensary next door. For members of a party who do not have a same-day receipt, the fee for 45-minute entry will be $10 per person.
Hours of operation are expected to be noon to 8 p.m. daily with the last reservation accepted at 7:15 p.m. Initially the business plans to only allow up to two groups of four at a time, for a max of eight people, but maximum occupancy is 19 people according to its permit.
The company behind the business is Holistic Industries, which describes itself as the country’s largest privately held cannabis operator with operations from California to Washington, D.C.
This doesn’t entirely cover everything I have in mind for a public marijuana lounge, or “coffeeshop” as they’re known in Holland, but at least it’s a start. Civilization will not truly be reached until anyone can go into a marijuana spot and get the weed or hash they want and smoke it on the spot with their friends, no matter how many of them there may be.
In other heartening news in Michigan, Alan Brochstein reports that Michigan cannabis sales increased during April to almost $154 million, a new all-time high that represents a jump of 149% from last year, with medical sales improving 43% to $48.4 million and adult-use sales soaring 278% to $105.2 million.
Michigan generated $985 million in cannabis sales in 2020, and the program should continue to expand this year as supply becomes more available and as distribution expands.
One of the side benefits of legalization is that a lot of drug convicts are getting their convictions expunged and rejoining the great mass of American humanity that miraculously never ran afoul of the drug police.
Here in Michigan, Scott McClallen reports in The Center Square, a group of six law firms, criminal justice groups, and cannabis reform organizations has come together as the Great Lakes Expungement Network to help people expunge their marijuana convictions under Michigan’s new “Clean Slate” law.
The network is supported by the nonprofit Redemption Foundation, founded by Ryan Basore and the Redemption Cannabis brand, and the nonprofit Sons and Daughters United, which helps low-income, underprivileged and minority populations.
Law firms supporting the Great Lakes Expungement Network include Cannabis Counsel, Detroit; The Law Offices of Barton Morris, Royal Oak; Duncan & Associates, Dowagiac; Michigan Cannabis Lawyers, Lansing; Rudoi Law, Royal Oak; and Wojtowicz Law PLC, St. Joseph.
Josh Covert, the Network’s legal services director and partner at Michigan Cannabis Lawyers, points out that “Too many people have been harmed by cannabis prohibition, so we want to help them take advantage of Michigan’s Clean Slate law and usher them through the application process.”
Ryan Basore asserts that “Many people are unaware of their eligibility, and even more are burdened by complicated forms and the hefty expense which can cost thousands of dollars on average. Organizers at the Great Lake Expungement Network are dedicated to helping people navigate the state’s complex expungement process.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has said up to 1 million Michigan residents may newly qualify for expungement under the law that took effect this year. A University of Michigan Law study found that individuals who expunged their records experienced a wage jump of 25 percent, attained better housing options, and increased employment likelihood by 11 percent.
Finally, on the all-important federal front, Kyle Jaeger reports that Republican Congressmen David Joyce of Ohio and Don Young of Arkansas have introduced a bill to legalize marijuana, protect banks that service state-legal cannabis business and ensure that military veterans are specifically permitted to use marijuana in accordance with state laws.
The Common Sense Cannabis Reform for Veterans, Small Businesses, and Medical Professionals Act will de-schedule cannabis but regrettably does not contain social justice provisions to repair the past harms of the war on drugs.
Under the proposal, marijuana would be removed from the Controlled Substances Act, clearing states to enact legislation that would allow cannabis to be imported and exported across state lines.
With respect to veterans, the legislation also provides that physicians can discuss medical marijuana use with veterans in legal states and they can “recommend, complete forms for, or register veterans in a treatment program involving medical marijuana.”
On the House side, Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said recently that he plans to reintroduce his bill, the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE), which cleared the chamber last year but did not advance in the Senate under GOP control.
Republicans, Democrats, Senators, Representatives—it’s about time to put all this silly shit behind us and FREE THE WEED!
—Detroit
May 23-24, 2021
© 2021 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
