Marijuana.com

newgrowerNY

Hash Bash Pro-Pot Event Gets Touch of Hollywood
04.08.07|Everything Michigan

The Hash Bash was cold and a little bit Hollywood Saturday.

Among the featured speakers this year was actor and director David Arquette, touring to promote his movie "The Tripper,'' which debuts April 20. Arquette's words followed the theme of the 36th annual event, which emphasized the need to change laws to legalize marijuana.

"What we really should be fighting is violence'' as a solution to solving our problems, Arquette told an enthusiastic crowd of more than 400. They endured freezing temperatures, wind and snow flurries for nearly an hour on the University of Michigan Diag Saturday.

Adam Brook, organizer and master of ceremonies of the Hash Bash since 1989, termed the crowd and response better than expected, given the weather. He said Arquette has been a fan of the event and made time to include the Hash Bash in his tour.

Scio Township Trustee Chuck Ream said that many existing laws ignore research showing marijuana is not a dangerous drug, but rather is "God's holy and sacred medicine.''

Tim Beck, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) vowed to continue the fight to change the state law. "This thing is going to change, I promise you,'' he said.

Brook paid tribute to James Wilson Jr., known as Chef Ra, who wrote a food column in the pro-marijuana magazine "High Times.'' He died in his sleep on Dec. 26 at age 56.

Brook said Wilson often enjoyed a beer at Ashley's on State Street. He marked the memory by emptying a bottle in the middle of the Diag - but didn't sip from it. "My lawyer advised me about that,'' Brook said.

In the heyday of the Hash Bash in the 1970s, as many as 10,000 people packed into the Diag. The event began 35 years ago as a reaction to activist John Sinclair's 1969 prison sentence on charges of possessing two marijuana cigarettes.

__________________
Posting Guidelines




Disclaimer: I love to grow