First Time Appearance of National Expert Steven DeAngelo
The Hash Bash rally on the University of Michigan Diag began in 1972, after cultural activist John Sinclair was sentenced to ten years on prison for selling two joints to an undercover narcotics agent. The Michigan Supreme Court declared the law used to convict Sinclair unconstitutional and since, the annual Hash Bash gathering focuses on the goal of reforming federal, state, and local marijuana laws.
*Longtime Hash Bash organizer Adam Brook is incarcerated, so this year the event is organized by three local drug policy reform activists: longtime Ann Arbor activist Chuck Ream, President of University of Michigan Students for Sensible Drug Policy Nick Zettell, and Michigan Moms United to End the War on Drugs founder Charmie Gholson.
*Gholson and Ream will co-MC the event, which features an additional 30 minutes, an expanded speakers list that includes more women, more people of color and young activists, and national expert and California medical marijuana activist Steve DeAngelo as the featured speaker.
*For the first time in 41 years, Michigan activists are collecting signatures to amend Michigan’s Constitution and repeal marijuana prohibition for adults 21 and older. The Committee for a Safer Michigan ballot question is a direct response to the interference by state officials to implement Michigan’s Medical Marihuana Act, as well as increasing legal actions against state sanctioned medical marijuana patients and caregivers. The amendment, which renders every anti-marijuana statute unconstitutional, will not apply to or change work place or driving issues regarding marijuana.
*Michigan activists are fighting back on many levels. Our state now has 5 local initiatives up and running in an effort to create “lowest law enforcement priority” for up to one ounce of marijuana, or to legally “enable” dispensaries, or to establish a local “decrim by exemption”. Kalamazoo just passed its LLEP initiative by a 2 to 1 vote in August and we look forward to other cities doing the same.
* Steve DeAngelo, President and Founder of the world’s largest dispensary (Harborside Health Center, Oakland CA.) and star of the “Weed Wars” TV show is flying in from California just to address the expected 6,000 attendees of HB. Steve is a phenomenal speaker, an expert on medical marijuana and was founder of the creation and development of Steep Hill Labs, California’s premier medical cannabis analysis laboratory for safety screening and quality assurance.
WHAT: Annual Hash Bash rally
WHEN: Saturday, April 7 from 12 noon- 1:30pm, followed by a march to the Monroe Street Fair
WHERE: University of Michigan Diag, Ann Arbor MI
