Cannabis News
  Winter Returns Just in Time for Hash Bash
Posted by CN Staff on April 06, 2003 at 12:30:45 PT
By Ann Schimke, News Staff Reporter  
Source: Michigan Live  

cannabis The weather was better for shivering than smoking marijuana, but that didn't deter hundreds of people from turning out Saturday afternoon for the 32nd annual Hash Bash on the University of Michigan Diag.

As a light snow fell, the crowd cheered peace-promoting speakers who argued for the legalization of marijuana and skewered the drug war and the war in Iraq.

"These are diehard potheads that understand this is going to happen," organizer Adam Brook of Ann Arbor said after the event, contemplating what he said was a pretty good turnout.

Although the U-M Office of Public Safety estimated the crowd at 650, Brook, who has MC'd the rally for seven years, estimated it at 4,000. Brook noted few U-M students were among the Hash Bashers attending the rally.

"I think the university intimidated these kids into thinking if they come here, something's going to happen." Brook told the crowd.

Along with the cold, a large contingent of U-M police officers also may have deterred attendees from lighting up much more than cigarettes. Most in the crowd kept their hands in their pockets or their arms folded across their chests despite several entreaties from the speakers to light up "a fat one."

Police reported few problems. U-M Public Safety officers made four arrests, one for marijuana possession, two for under-age tobacco use and one for trespassing. Two vendors without permits also were cited.

"It was uncharacteristically uneventful," said Lt. Robert Neumann, of U-M Public Safety.

At one point during the rally, a man was ushered by two officers to the periphery of the crowd, which started a short-lived chant, "Let him go." Later though, Brook reported, the man wasn't arrested, just asked to leave the area.

Ann Arbor Police officials said their officers made no arrests related to Hash Bash.

Joanne Smith, who attended a small "smoke-in" rally in front of the downtown post office before the Hash Bash, said she came out because "it just seems like the thing to do." The 24-year-old Ann Arbor resident said she's come to the Hash Bash for five years, and falls into the category of participants who want to smoke marijuana there but don't because they're afraid they'll get caught.

"You have your beliefs, but you're not willing to put anything on the line for it. It's sad," she said.

John Sinclair, a former Ann Arbor resident and 1960s activist, was one of the speakers, calling the event a "fine Saturday institution." The first Hash Bash was held after Sinclair's 1969 arrest and imprisonment for possessing two marijuana joints. On Saturday, he praised the city for being a place where marijuana is "almost legal" or at least "decriminalized."

The fine for marijuana possession in the city is $25, but Brook warned Hash Bash attendees the rules are different on the University of Michigan campus because it falls under state, not city, laws.

Although few people openly smoked marijuana at the Hash Bash, some were more than willing to talk about their use of the drug.

Paula Richardson, a Bay City resident and the mother of an 8-year-old daughter, carried a colorful homemade sign that read, "Can't we all just get a bong?"

"I smoke pot and that's that," she said.

Richardson, who is a direct care worker in an adult home, said she's been up front with her employer about her use of marijuana and hasn't been required to take a drug test. Her uncle's battle with prostate cancer solidified her belief that medical marijuana use should be legalized, she said. Although her uncle was afraid to use the substance, he eventually tried it and found that it eased the pain and helped make him more lucid, she said.

A short distance away, Brian Morrisey passed out posters for the upcoming Global March for Cannabis Liberation planned for cities around the world. A student and pizza delivery driver from Flint, the 21-year-old said the Hash Bash was smaller than usual because of the weather and had fewer vendors because of new city rules.

"The city changes its laws, but we still come out and have a good time," Morrisey said.

Note: In frigid weather, few appeared to light up.

Newshawk: afterburner
Source: Michigan Live (MI)
Author: Ann Schimke, News Staff Reporter
Published: Sunday, April 6, 2003
Copyright: 2003 Michigan Live Inc.
Website: http://aa.mlive.com/
Contact: editor@annarbornews.com

Related Articles & Web Sites:

Ann Arbor Hash Bash
http://www.hashbash.com/

Million Marijuana March 2002
http://freedomtoexhale.com/million.htm

A2 Prepares for Hash Bash Events
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15877.shtml

Petitioners Net 8,000 Signatures
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9316.shtml


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Comment #6 posted by FoM on April 06, 2003 at 14:46:15 PT
afterburner
I like what you said. Thank you. This weekend the movie channels are free. Turning off the news and watching Jurassic Part the third one was nice except it wasn't relaxing at all! LOL! I really enjoyed Hollywood High the other night on AMC and they mentioned a movie called Requiem for a Dream I think. I didn't catch the whole movie but I was totally caught up in the message it was trying to get across. It's hard to tune out but I believe it is necessary for our mental health. I think we might as well get use to war because war will never end. It's too late to ever go back to the way it was. It's all down hill from here. I believe the Cannabis community will do better then many people. We aren't disillusioned.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #5 posted by afterburner on April 06, 2003 at 14:11:31 PT:

Struggle On.
The War on Some Plants, the DEA raids on medical cannabis dispensaries and providers, The War on Terrorism and the Assault on the Constitution, The War on Iraq, and now a freak "winter" storm, but still WETHEPEOPLE struggle on. Now is not the time to quit. Thirty years of progress will surely be rolled back if we don't keep pressing on. Fight the good fight, but find a way to relax once in a while and enjoy the bounty of God's nature.

The Dream

When the white eagle of the North is flying overhead - And the browns, reds and gold of autumn lie in the gutter, dead. - Remember then the summer bird with wings of fire flaying - Come to witness spring's new hope, born of leaves decaying. - As new life will come from death, love will come with leisure. - Love of love, love of life and giving without measure - Gives in return a wondrous yearn of a promise almost seen. - Live hand-in-hand and together we'll stand on the threshold of a dream. -"On The Threshold Of A Dream" - The Moody Blues - Moody Blues Lyrics http://members.tripod.com/sstWordSmith2/music/MoodyBlues/OnTheThresholdOfADream.htm#TheDream

ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #4 posted by Lehder on April 06, 2003 at 14:10:15 PT
The United Soviet States of America
Maybe the KGB knows how to run a proper drug war:

http://162.42.211.226/article2637.htm

(For a while I thought maybe I'm just a little dense today, that this article is a satire supposed to amuse, and I could find no corroborating stories. But it sure sounds like Ashcroft and the former governor of Pennsylvania, Ridge, who believes "drugs" are so dangerous that that the military is needed in making busts.)

always more good news here:

http://162.42.211.226/

and here:

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

and you gotta read this guy's essays:

http://davesweb.cnchost.com/

For more than a year I have hesitated broadcasting my opinion that the U.S.G. will soon be using food as a weapon for controlling people. One should not make such an outlandish claim without some evidence and a good argument. But I'm impatient of study or analysis these days and find within my crystal ball, along with the invasion of the KGB, evidence enough. How better to control people than to reward the obedient and starve the rest? Plenty of hateful people here will endorse such a policy, and the same right wingers who like to get loud about getting drunk and beating some marchers, and who dump flasks of wine to protest France, will get behind this plan eagerly expecting their tables to be as full as their manners are bad.

How would the government create food "shortages" and blame the problem on marijuana or terrorists? Easy - the same way as "strikes" in Venezuela were blamed on workers: The bosses locked the workers out then had the media report that those same workers had gone on strike.

I wish I could be as optimistic as so many are in anticipating an end to prohibition and who work so hard to hasten it, especially because I see that end as only a small part of the Golden Age that is technically and economically possible.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by i420 on April 06, 2003 at 13:22:31 PT
Restore the vendors!
What rules changed for vendors,who changed them and what can we DO about it??

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #2 posted by afterburner on April 06, 2003 at 13:17:25 PT:

Another State Legislature Steps Up to Bat.
WEED WHACKING Pubdate: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 Source: Michigan Daily (Ann Arbor, MI Edu) http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n474/a10.html?1392

Decriminalization Movement Buds

Senate Bill 197, a bill that would decriminalize marijuana, has been proposed in the state Legislature. The introduction of this legislation coincides with the annual Hash Bash, which will take place April 5. This is an opportunity for University students to support the Senate bill and to support liberalized marijuana policies.

More state legislature action on cannabis, typically under-reported.

ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by freedom fighter on April 06, 2003 at 13:15:08 PT
Strange but true and very strange......
Police clamp down on gangs stealing wild flower bulbs to order A thriving and lucrative black market in stolen bluebells, orchids and snowdrops is threatening some of Britain's best-loved species

Sort of off-topic but it's about PLANTS....

Some of Britain's best-loved species are soooo posionous!

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=392042

paz

ff

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