Starting with chants of “DEA, GO AWAY!” and “FREE THE WEED!” the 40th annual Hash Bash drew an estimated 6,000 people to the University of Michigan campus at noon today.
The event is an outdoor celebration of marijuana smoking led by an hour of speeches that promote legalizing pot. But this year’s talk included much about the need to safeguard access to the drug for medical marijuana patients.
“We are going to have major threats this year to our law,” said speaker Chuck Ream, 64, of Ann Arbor. Ream led the fight for Ann Arbor’s medical marijuana ordinance in 2004.
“Now we have to fight back and win,” Ream said, referring to threats by some state legislators to amend the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.
Marni Glovinsky stood in the audience and cheered the speakers. Glovinsky said she has fibromyalgia and is a state approved medical marijuana patient.
The marijuana “helps the pain a lot,” Glovinsky said. “I think a lot of people are abusing the law, but for people who need it medically, it’s wonderful.”
Article By Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Press.
