Hash Bash Diag Ann Arbor

To God, to God, to God, to God, to God, to God, to God to God to send him free?

Was he jail forwarding or representing everyone free?

John?

Now lift the little, return him to his wife and kids, Let him free, Let.

Him be breathing ill. Lucky you and me. The game even ten for two.

That's all the motherfuckers do.

The God, to God, to God, to God, to God, to God, to God, to God, to.

God, to God, to.

God, to God, to God to God to send him free.

Brother John Sinclair, may you rest in peace, and may you truly be free of pain, and may the read truly be free where you are and not over regulated and text and having a bunch of people come up and tell you how proud they are they freed one drug and still believe prohibition works for every other drug.

That makes no sense to me. And uh, the war is not over.

A small battle has been won, but we've lost a lot of people that have devoted a lot of their lives to trying to fight this thing we call the War on drugs. That even Richard Nixon's chief of staff, John Erlickman, on his deathbed, said the War on drugs was never about controlling drugs. It was about controlling people. We couldn't arrest the protesters, so we use weed to get the protesters, and we couldn't arrest black people for being black, so they flooded New York with dope to

All right, Leith will be at the Winewood Organic tomorrow doing an appearance about three o'clock and kind of continuing this tribute for John there.

So check them out there and let's hear it again for.

Laith Alsadi, all right, coming up to kick off the speakers here, the guy that ran this show for a couple of decades, who took on a lot of challenges, who actually brought John Sinclair back into the fold.

Years ago. He's more than earned his nickname.

So let's hear it for mister Hashbash Adam Brook.

Hey, hash fans, how you doing.

Listen, You're gonna hear a lot of stuff from a lot of people today, so I'm not gonna waste my time with that. Here's what I want to know. How many of you got dope on you right now? Here's a more important question. How many of you actually still have a medical marijuana card. Understand that that's the only paid vote that we're allowed. You go get that medical card, and those legislators see that there's more of us.

We can't hand them any money.

That's against the law, but we can all go get medical cards and they can't stop us. And the more of us that they see that need it, the more they're willing to work with us. So it's easy easier for us to get Man. I'm sorry. That was the first time I ever cried during that song. We brought John out here years ago because at the time he was an award winning DJ down in New Orleans, and we knew that this event was based on his hard work and the time he spent in prison, so it meant a lot to us.

To get him back involved in the weed game.

I had no idea that John Sinclair was a blues poet and he used to do some.

You're gonna keep in the shorts away medic.

I need a medic somewhere right out here where these people are waving their hand. I need a medic. So if you're a medic, they need you. I need a medic too. But that's another story. There he goes. So here's the deal, folks. They referred to Laith al Sadi as the ann Arbor's prodigal son. Someone once named me mister Ashbash. I didn't care for that. I was Adam L. Brook, and I helped put on that Hashbash. I've learned to

It's called Ain't Nobody's Business.

John wrote it for his buddy Henry Normiel, Bradley Jones and Bob Righteous Red Nook. We have a right to our bad habit. If we want to blow our minds or fuck up our lives, shoot dope or smoke cocaine. If we want to eat too much meat, sit around all day and watch TV, stay up all night listening

That was a John move. I always liked it. Sleep in doorways, pissing the gutter.

If we want to sleep away the day, never answer the telephone, take every meal in restaurants and bars, and never exercise. And if it comes to the end of the line for us, we have every right to blow our mother fucking brains out, or jump off a bridge, or take ourselves away from here any way we might want to. Then, baby, please, we got a right to our bad habit, and it ain't nobody's.

Business if we do.

I appreciate that because John and I worked together for years, and when I lost my father, he became a father to me. So I suggest y'all learn a little bit about him, because what you think you know is a very small part of his life, and the coolest part is what he actually did and who he did it with and what it created. And how it created and most of that happened in ann Arbor. They chased him out of Detroit, so he came to ann Arbor. And

Back then.

There was a minister of this and a minister of that. But I know who really kept it all together. So it's my great honor to introduce one of the best photographers I've ever seen. I suggest she get her book, but she photographed the history that created John Sinclair.

So with great pleasure, I'd like to introduce Lenny's Sinclaire.

It should have been John here right now, but the Great Spirit had other plans for him and called him home.

But he's here and spired. Every one of you here is part of it. Okay, uhh uh.

In January I read in the newspaper uh to nominate people for Michigan of the Year, and I said, why not nominate Jansenclair?

And and and I wrote this.

My name is Lenny Sinclair, and I would like to nominate my ex, my ex husband, Jan Sinclair, as Michiganian of the Year. I myself escaped from communists East Germany in nineteen fifty nine and ended up in Detroit. When I met John Sinclair in nineteen sixty four, he was already fighting against the most Tryconian law ever imposed on law abiding Americans, totally based on junk science. That spirit of fighting against injustice attracted me to him in the

And so.

We lived together, and John was on probation for his first offense. And one night his probation officer came to us, came to us and said the John, the police is trying to bust you again. And John was flabbergast and said, what for. I didn't do anything wrong? And he said illegal cohabitation.

That was against the law.

And for anybody who followed that law, it was illegal for people of opposite sex to live together without being married. So what did we do? We got married so and and we produced two beautiful children, Sunny Millions and Claire who might be and Celia Sinclair. And we got a lot of problems in Detroit, and one night our house got fire bombed and set on fire, and we had to practically move away overnight. And so uh we rented

Signs saying sin.

Like in Sinclair, we were sins, sinners to them because we smoked weed. And now all you sinos turned into saints.

But but.

I'm thinking of why Johns and Claire were supposed I nominated him as Michigan Canyon.

Of the Year is because of them.

What he started has an immense economic impact on the economy of Michigan.

And and.

Should there be any students of statistics here, somebody can figure out just how much money John saved the state of Michigan by overturning the law in nineteen seven, nineteen seventy two. Before the law was overturned, it was ten years for possession and twenty to life for giving a joint away.

And John was charged with giving a joint two joints to.

An undercover agent, and it resulted in ten years. And if you can figure out if the law had not been changed, the state of Michigan would have been housing prisoners for twenty years to life, and we all would have to pay taxes to keep the people in jail. That's like millions of dollars the state didn't have to pay for incarcelating these people because it was only one year, not ten. See, and then that law stayed on the

And so a.

Whole, a whole legal industry is now happening in Michigan where.

Thousands of people get jobs that are.

Legal and they can do and and and anyway. It's just enormous what John Sinclaire started, and we got to, you know, appreciate that. But but but I'm also thinking of what.

America did to people like us to.

By lying to us for the last seventy years or eighty years that marijuana with a dope and and suppressed.

And think in the last.

Seventy years, how that law has been used to suppress people, to destroy families, to costs thousands of Woken meurges, and cost woking homes.

For it's we have that.

Has to stop now under the stopping now, And uh.

I'm talking too much. I'm not a taker.

But when we were the White Panther Party, John named all the ministers, ministers, this ministers Pope again he named me as the Minister of Education. Now the party done left, but I'm still educating people.

That's why I'm trying to do right now.

So I just I just want to tell people.

I want to tell people to thank the.

People who worked with us. We had a commune on Hill Street. Up to twenty eight people lived there and they all worked for two and a half years in sacrificing their own lives and worked for no money to get John out of jail. I want a tribute to everybody who and contributed to John's freedom.

And I wonder, just that's it. What else I don't know, or what else I said?

Is what else I said is In nineteen seventy two, John Sinclair won the case in the United States Supreme Court against illegal wire tapping to educate people who don't know about it. This case is in Wikipedia under the Keith case. Keith was the trial judge who was accused by the government of obeying the law, and they tied him to not obey the law, you know, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and after john got out of jail in January.

The case was heard in the Supreme Court in.

January, and we went there and to watch arguments in the Supreme Court was one of the highlights of my whole life as American.

It was incredible.

And the judges voted unanimously against Nixon, which led to Nixon's resignation.

And that's what Johnson cleared it okay, And.

If that wasn't enough, Johnson Claire deserves to be honest for his incredible life as a poet and writer and editor and publisher and musician and DJ and manager of two of Michigan's best known and the Empty Five and the Students, and contributed to the vibrant artistic community of Michigan.

Thank you, Thank you, every one of you.

Things I.

Just I just wanted to mention one of the things. You know, John.

Janet, I got divorced. Uh, because the struggle it was like war. Until the log had changed, it was like war. Everybody was being terrorized. If the police turned on their lights behind their car, you know, there was domestic terrorists and innocent people and so uh and and and so we divorced. The struggle was too hot for to last and John vioge uh uh lady named Patricia Bound. She's

Thank you very much.

Thank you for being your thank you. You know, John Sinclaire himself said that Lenny did everything he did except for half to go to jail. So she hasn't been given the recognition that she really just has been deserving over the years. Let's please let her know how we feel about Lenny Sinclair's.

Ready, Mandy, that's such an honor. Okay, So now now.

Our next week really embodies a lot of the reasons that John did a lot of the work that he did. We have somebody who served twenty five years of a forty.

Year sentence for minor cannabis activity.

I was there when he was released, ironically about four to twenty in the morning from Jackson, and there was media there, there was a film crew there, and with moments of stepping out, he started letting everybody know that he's going to work and try to help to get others out who shouldn't be in there with him, and he's since then done that. There's a movie about him. He speaks at many places, he educates people, He does a lot of very important work now he and his team,

He wants, yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

What's up?

What's up?

Talk to me. I'm here.

I come from Flint, Michigan to talk to you. Now, come here, Come here, guys, come here. I want to introduce you to some people that because of you, all because of you, these guys is free NIBBs doing life just like I was doing life.

What's your name, bro Hey, my name Leon Benson.

I'm an exigner, reed after twenty five years of wrongfully incarceration.

But I'm back here today for the people. You hear me, Michael Thompson, You hear me right, that's right, I'm saymble singing Gore.

I was a juvenile lifer and because of the works of the people and one of your very own an arbor double lebel, I am no longer incarcerated.

I'm a freeman.

My name is Larry Darnell Smith Junior.

I spent twenty six years, ten months, in seven days in prison for a crime outn't commit. I advocate on behalf of the innocent, the medically frail in the over sentence, and boy, oh boy, God made a great win to day.

Thank you everybody.

Yeah yeah, now, let me talk to you. The politicians. I'm sure you tired of them clever speeches. I'm sure you tired of them clevin speeches. When are you gonna get the young people of movement going? They need you, young people, They need you, and I need you. The Michael Thompson, Clemency need you, the Last Prison Project need you. A whole lot of people need you, young people. That's the reason why I'm here now. I come a long ways from washing my clothes and the toilet, dude.

I come a long ways.

I remember a few y'all know about that story about me washing my clothes and the toilet dude. But yes, I did that. But I got me a new washman, see and dryer now. But but you know them politicians, right now is a very important time for you and me.

We need you.

That started the young people movement, that started that and see can they stop that. They can't stop no young people moving. And that's what I.

Need you do to wake up, wake up up people.

And you know, I think back where I come from, where I come from during twenty five years for three pounds of marijuana, twenty five.

Years for three pounds of marijuana.

Why did I stay in prison for twenty five years for marijuana? And marijue ain't never killed nobody, nobody. And my thing is to tell you you need to sallow up, sto up. You know what I'm saying against the politicians. Don't give a damn about you or me. Set up and the young people. It's a young people time now. You just tell young people's march, March on, March on. Young people gonna get get the right people in office to be because the wrong ones is in office.

Get the right ones in Listen.

I want to close with this to tell you this. I come back here because I love.

The hash Badge.

I love the hash Badge, and the Halsh Badge loved me so so when I think back, when I think back at some of the people that's back in prison right now, when I think back at him.

Wow, it's a sad. It's a sad.

It's a sad, sad look because when they snunck me out of prison. They snuck me out of prison at four o'clock in the morning. They don't let nobody out at no four o'clock in the morning, but I supposta have been been let out at eight o'clock. And then they changed at four o'clock because they thought the media. They thought they were gonna beat the media down because it's real cold outside. But not only the media was waiting on their ass, so was the prisoners.

The prisoners.

The prisoners, they were still awoke. And they told me. They called me Miko in prison. They said, Michelo, go out there and tell the truth. And that's what I've been doing. I've been telling the motherfucket too.

Let your head bet.

Right on.

Alright, let's hear it again from Michael Thompson, and then we're gonna have you got it, dude, dude, we'll have We'll have some Richard untangle himself and then introduce our nextcess. Let's hear it again from Michael Thompson. Please alight you doctor.

Okay, oh fuck okay, they're playing later.

Thirty.

Hello, have you has been.

Well?

Before I get started here fix these little technical difficulties. My job is to uh introduce this.

Guy right here.

Hold older, Oh okay, goddamn it, Okay, live video, go line, Okay, green eas. My name is Richard C. Clement, and uh some people know me as free the Weed. Yes, indeed, for the jobs we need, because the people agreed that though we shall be free. Okay, and a lot of us stay starting to call us old gee's right now okay, and we've been at this little bit a long time. We want to pass it on to the young people because Johnson Claire taught us all civics.

Okay, he showed you how to law words.

Tell you how the young people participate in your government, because introduce them.

Okay.

Anyway, I want to introduce doctor Witty, otherwise known as doctor Detroit. He's one of the old gs that I mean, He's laid out a lot of wisdom, and uh I want to pass on some of his knowledge to you. So without further ado, doctor Whitty.

Let's give Richard a chant, free the weed, Free the weed, Free the weed, and let's thank Jesse and his team Jamie and his team for a wonderful hashbash A sunny day dry Day. Thank you Jamie, thanks for your team. Yes, and let's free the prisoners that are still in prison. And let's remember if we don't get the young folks to turn out, you folks under forty are going to make the difference whether we carry Michigan for freedom and liberty or we're going to have the rest of our

And we need a.

Big turnout of everybody to get the kids and the grandkids voting absentee, getting absentee ballot, getting their friends engaged. Why do we have to stick on defense the rest of our lives. Were trying to build our life legacy and have something to be proud of. And we have our wonderful hash Bashion, Monroe Street Fair and Adams Hotel. You should definitely check out the session the music there

It was the great CRUs for us.

In Michigan, normal and Rory gold Right here in ann Arbor and Gersh Peanut Butter and all the elections. The elections are at the heart of it. Help this cause, stay engaged, registered, vote, absentee, join a campaign, volunteer. It's our life legacy to free the weed. It's our life's work. It's not going to be over in twenty twenty four, but it's a big crisis. And we do need the young and the non voter. We need the skeptics to be hopeful and optimistic, not pessimistic. Hope and optimism will

It's absolutely it's a life's work.

And I'm grateful to be here.

And by all means, get involved in this election.

Do some phone.

Banking from home, or some texting, or even write a small check, or go get involved in a campaign, or get involved in a cause. The far right has thirty causes they've attacked, including cannabis. They're making it immoral to smoke cannabis, right, and so we've got to remember, Ohio,

Free the weed, but free the weed.

Hey have an announcement over in this general area. Somebody lost a wedding band, so please be aware of that, and if so.

Turn into us up here right on.

All right, So next up.

The guy whose history he goes decades back in ann Arbor, part of the UH original five Dollars Fine later on Local Medical. He's been involved in this world for so long. He's the inspiration I had to get started in activism.

There.

His name consists of two verbs.

Let's please welcome Chuck Reem.

All right, who's gonna carry the Hold this, hold this next to me, hold one of them?

Can you hold one of these?

Can you hold one of these?

It's so great to see everybody today, absolutely outstanding, just beautiful and free. We We're here today to celebrate the brave life of John Sinclair, in the life of our comrade Rick Thompson, and all the others who have died.

What incredible change we have made in Michigan.

We used to be outlaws, always in danger, always afraid. Now we can walk into a lovely cannabis store, or we can buy, or we can legally grow as much as we want. Michigan has the best cannabis law in the United States of America. That's in part because we have the greatest some of the greatest activists in the United States of America, led by Jamie Lowell, who put this thing together. We still have not won. We have

He needs to get control of the de e A, which is a rogue agency made up of thugs and crooks, and they are deciding this question.

We need to spread the goodness of cannabis everywhere and normalize its use. We need commercial social use, everything from coffee shops to fine dining, and we need non commercial social use.

We should be.

Able to smoke medic medic medic medic.

Medic All right, there, I think they're all set. All right, then we need to we need commercial social use and non commercial. We need to be able to smoke in parks at scheduled events. We need to be able to vaporize at community centers and senior centers everywhere. Cannabis helps us feel better physically and emotionally. Please, let me tell you a fact about mental health that I'd like you to remember.

Quote.

States that have fully legalized.

Cannabis have found a thirty seven percent decrease in mental health treatment admissions.

Thirty seven percent.

People less people have to put theirselves put away from mental illness.

We are criticized for.

Seeking the very best high, like we were Devians. Actually it's the Puritans who are the devians. The entire ancient world, all of the religions and Western civilization itself, we're focused on seeking the very best high.

That's what they were doing.

Quote the roots of Western civilization were soaked in psychoactive drugs. But the fun part of my speech is all done by fellow cannabis lovers. We are going to have serious political violence in the USA in November, December or January.

I don't say things like this.

I don't I'm not the person who says things like this, but it's gonna happen. I'm a serious student of politics, and when Donald talked about a bloodbath, he very specifically clarified that the auto industry will be the least of it. Think about it. Donald runs for office for exactly the same reason.

As Hitler took.

Get power and punish everyone who has made fun of him for so long. That's what he's doing it for. And this is it kids. When everyone in a group must swear allegiance to an obvious lie in order to serve a supreme leader, then bloodshed is not far away, is it. I hate to have to say things like this, but cannabis users have been stripped, stripped of our right to self defense. There is no equal right to self defense because our herb has been shamefully and you absurdly

That's unacceptable.

We may need to defend our families, our lives, and our property. I am gonna fight this really hard, and I have a great attorney, Tom Levine of Cannabis Council. That's gonna represent us, and we're gonna fight this till we win. We also we also need some activists. We also need some activists who are willing to carry a

Blood for the blood bath.

Who would participate in demonstrations for cannabis and gun rights, who would carry a sign?

Please help us.

If we get a dozen people protesting, we can change history. This would be the first protest ever about cannabis and gun rights. So I need to find two kinds of people. First, if there's somebody who is very, very interested in cannabis, they can sign up for the email list serve of the Safer Michigan Coalition. Me and Tim started that in two thousand and nine and we've won a lot since then.

This list allows the hard core.

Of the Michigan cannabis community to communicate with each other and you can be part of it. We almost have four hundred and twenty members. You could be number four hundred and twenty. Second, I need some tough people who are willing to carry signs like this and demonstrate and walk up and down on the street.

We would get a lot of press and.

We would win in the end.

These, the people who will carry these signs and demonstrates, are today's heroes. And we may need a plaintiff out here. We may need one more plaintiff who has a cannabis medical card and a gun. I'll be sitting straight at the back of the diag for a couple of hours. Just ruey in the back, and if there's anybody who wants to sign up for the list for communication or sign up to fight for gun rights, come back please and sign my sheets.

I say, free the weed, and thank you all for being here today.

Thank you.

We when we smoke cannabis and you psychedelics, we are uniting with the spirit of the earth and the spirit for me of the Mother God. All right, right up, And this is the great, great Attorney Tom Levine of Cannabis Council in Detroit.

Right, all right, it is true.

And there's somebody who did so much more than me. I organized about a third of the local victories in Michigan. My friend Tim beckere organized about two thirds of them. He made my life dream come true by winning. Let me let you talk to Tim Beck now. Tim is the man if you sign up for our list, Tim is the man who will send you the news each morning.

Thank you, Thank you, Chuck, bless you man. I'm so happy. We've had this friendship for so long. You know, I met this guy for the first time in two thousand and four. Didn't he know who he was? Okay? And I was doing a ball at Initia even Detroit to legalize medical use of marijuana. And then I found out that Chuck was doing one in an harbor. So we've been buddies ever since. But anyway, Hey, isn't it a beautiful day to day? You know, the sun shining, there's weed,

Well.

I want to say something about thank you. I want to say something about John Sinclair. You know, I was in eighth grade, you know, in a Catholic school in Monroe County and I didn't know. I never met John, said Clare, but I sure heard about him. People hated his ass out there. Oh that son of a bitch.

But we won.

We won in Detroit and ann Arbor, and that got the ball rolling, It really did. And I got to know John personally later on in life when he was gotten on in years. And there's a side of him. Everybody thinks he's him as a tough guy, which he was. He was loud, he was in your face, he made people uncomfortable. But there was another side of him. He was a philosopher, he was an aesthetic. He was a good kind man. And that's the John said Claire that

But I helped. I helped clean the thing up.

And I know there's a part of me I thank God, you know that God gave me the opportunity to help this man who did so much for everybody else. It was a beautiful thing. And he didn't die a rich man. Okay, he didn't have a four to oh one k. He lived very humbly. His health was not good and he passed on way too early. And that's all I have to say. I just thank everybody. It's a wonderful day today and I love you all. Thank you, take care.

Thank you.

I'm John and my roots are in Flint, Michigan, where I was born, and that's where John Sinclair was born, in Client, Michigan. And I just want to say that I was with John about ten weeks ago. He was in Detroit Receiving hospital. I got to talk to him. I knew him as being the artist. I'm a double de great artist and visual arts and we all need to say a prayer for John. John was instrumental in helping people out and he had a great heart.

Thank you very much, all right, sorry that that Mike needs to be working up there for Josie. I was trying to circumvent this. Somebody get that for thanking all you guys helped me introduce Josie. The engine to so much great charitable work, the authentic passion for this work, to help people get their records expunge, just to help families out in many different ways. Okay, we need the mic for Josie to work. If possible, Tom, we go, testing, testing, testing.

Josie Scoggin.

Everybody let her know how you feel about her.

Shit, I wrote a speech. I want to cry instead. My name is Josie. I am the HBI C at the Great Lakes Expungement Network. We are Michigan's favorite FIE free full service expungement program. Expungements are intersectional work.

If you care about housing.

Insecurity, if you care about food and security, if you care about recovery, you have to understand the burden that comes with a criminal record. Twenty five percent of Michigan unders are burdened by a criminal record. Right now, an automatic expungement was brought in to save it, but unfortunately we're seeing automatic expungement being reinstated without notice to the client, without notice to the courts.

People need assistance.

With expungement now more than ever, and it seems the state is making it harder. But we're gonna expunge a shit ton of records this year.

And I don't give.

A fuck what the Michigan State Place has to say about it, because I Fucke's Hut of the bad guys always winning, and I will just keep doing it and if they.

Reverse it, we'll go back to court.

Because people don't deserve to be in jail for cannabis. And if they go to jail for cannabis, they don't deserve to rot there.

Oh here goes.

My dad spent seventeen years in bedrol prison. It's hard for me to grapple and understand, and I carried a lot of shame with it and coming to the cannabis community. I was Michigan's first medical marijuana patient. So it's really popular in.

High school.

Coming into the community that looked like me, that loved me, that could smoke.

Weed like me, and they all have the same story.

Because guess what their daddy said, time in prison too. In fact, one in six Michiganders parents did time in jail this year. It's not just me, and if you're here, it's not just you. I'm really proud, eager, and excited to introduce our next guest, Kristin Flo. I met Kristin Floor ten years ago. Her dad was going to prison. I thought, wow, this feels familiar. He was growing weeds, so he's.

The real criminal.

Kristen started a campaign where she started putting money on the books for federal cannabis prisoners and other cannabis prisoners and people like her dad.

And while he was in there, they.

Started doing newsletters.

They started doing birthday wishes because guess what, when you're sentenced to life in prison, people forget when it's your fucking birth Kay, But my girl said, uh uh, not in my house.

I am proud, honored, look at me.

I'm crying and eager to introduce Christin for with Freedom Grow.

Already, Hi you guys, I'm coming before you today with the United Front. I've got Randy Lanier here, he's our CEO of Freedom Grow. I'm the executive director.

Thank you.

Josie for the beautiful words. We've got some people coming out. If you have a prison outreach sign, please come and stand on these steps for us guys. My UH partner here Randy. He served twenty seven years of a life sentence, and as Josie was telling you, my father died shackled to a hospital bed. I took him off life support while his ankle was still shackled to the bed. He died with broken bones on Diego's colon cancer liver failure.

So thank you.

Congratulations to you guys. I want to I want to say say thank you to Redemption Foundation, Greater Lakes Expungement and Sons and Daughters United for bringing Randy and I out here and let me see here. I just want to introduce you guys for our CEO, Randy Lanier. Randy has a Netflix movie or a Netflix documentary out you guys should check out, called.

Need for Weed.

Randy is a race car driver and our CEO who served twenty seven years of will Life sentence.

Hello greetings.

First of all, thank you all of you for coming out here and sharing your time with us. And I want to thank Josie Scusin's from the Great Lakes Expungement Network. Thank you, Josie. Josie brought us up here. Freedom Go Team. We've got nationwide prisoners and their families we support. We support it from people like you that help us support them by paying for their phone calls.

We have a wish program.

We grant wishes to the prisoners of weed, so please free to Weed prisoners. I want to also think all of the people up here holding these signs, a lot of them have been incarcerated. They've been through the torture of the federal government or the states that lock us up for weed.

And look at us now.

John Sinclair, I send you my greatest regards.

But guess what your voice is still being heard.

Share your dreams, because when you share your dreams, you create just masterpieces of wonderful stuff and the right thing that's going on.

Free the Weed.

Thank you all for coming here, and Christian, thank you, thank you, Josie, thank you all for being a part of this day today. This is my first hash Bash and I am blown away.

Thank you.

Yeah, guys, Randy came from Florida and I came from Washington State, and we're so grateful to be in your state. You guys are amazing. Before we go, I just want to say, oh yeah, I want to also let you guys say thanks special thanks for our founder, Stephanie Landa, who couldn't be here today, but I just want to thank her for founding Freedom Grow because we have helped quite a bit of people incarcerated. Right now, we have about two hundred and sixty people out on our outreach list,

Guys, and let's.

Come by booth fifty nine over here and sign one of our letters. We got letters asking the president to free all the cannabis prisoners with all their names on it. We love you guys, and thank you for listening.

Thank you all.

And by the way, I used to ship weed and tractor and trailers and my biggest place I was shipping at too was ann Album Michigan.

It's crazy. I'm here, Yes, thank you.

All right, thank you, thank you. Randy and Christen really appreciate it. Check out Freedom Grow help them out. Great work, all right, Thanks Josie for helping to bring these people here.

That was pretty touching.

Okay, so next up, we have a guy who's been around the block in this event. He's helped out around the state with many events and educational opportunities for people to help move the needle forward with cannabis reform. He's been doing a lot of work lately with Michigan weedsters. Let's hear it for Ryan bring Old.

Thank you everybody, Thank you, Jamie Lowell, Thank you to everybody that showed.

Up in Ashpash Happy Hashbash. That's my family out there. You guys are my people.

I've been coming here for thirty three years straight because I love you, I love cannabis, and I love my cannabis family. That's surrounding me. We are here to celebrate. Yes, this is a celebration. It's a celebration of life, freedom, liberty, and the right to use and grow cannabis. We worked very hard for many years and it wasn't me. It was my forefathers like Chuck Reem, like Adam Brook, like John Sinclair, like many many others who I don't have time to talk about. Those are the guys that got

Adam Brook explained what he.

Spoke, that's the true power.

Of course, you don't need a medical card, but we want you to get one because when we go to Lansing to fight for our rights, your rights, everybody's rights, those cards may better. That's what the lawmakers see is how powerful we are as medical card holders. Also, those cards give you rights that recreational does not. Learn what those are. Read Section eight. Know that you have extra freedoms by carrying that med card. If you're eighteen years old,

We have rights.

Let's save those rights, use them, exercise them. Let's honor the people that came before me you by doing those simple things. I want to introduce Amy Carter. Amy Carter's worked many years in the cannabis industry. She came in with mental health concerns for autism and people that could use cannabis for mental health. She is a freedom fighter like no other, a powerful mother, friend, community member. She

Thank you everyone, thank you. I am honored to be speaking here today. I want to start by asking who here is from the great state of Michigan.

Who's here from out of state?

Okay.

As some of you know, Michigan has unique cannabis laws.

Michigan, in my opinion, has the best of the some of the best cannabis laws in the country. From John Sinclair to Rick Thompson and many more, they have fought to shape the laws that we enjoy today. Since nineteen sixty three, we've only had eight voter initiative laws pass in our state.

We need to protect those laws, just like we need to support Michigan businesses.

Corporations are trying to get rid of mom and pop Michigan cannabis business Are we gonna let that happen? Are we gonna let them supply us with the Walmart weed? Are we gonna let them take our rights to grow at home away? We're Michiganders, we have grit, we have resilience, and we are not gonna let our rights go away. Please join the Michigan Weedsers to protect Michigan businesses, to protect our rights to grow at home, and protect our

Let's say it again.

We don't need no corporate greed.

All right?

My name is Jacon Carter and I'm from Flint, Michigan.

I'm up here talking today because I was on Doctor Phil in twenty fourteen and my mom.

Almost lost me.

I lost myself.

I've been in and out of placements and my whole life has been an absolute miserable life. It's been a struggle every single day. And you know, anxiety is a thing. You know, depression is the thing, and that needs to be shined on. And the way I see this is I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be alive if I didn't have my cannabis, my medication. And Jaden's Laws is a law that makes it so kids can have

If they have a.

Siezer at school and they need their medication, what you're gonna do?

Let them die.

People's lives matter, My life's matter, everybody's lives matter, right.

I love all y'all.

I just want to say right now, happy hashbad y'all.

Good job.

And next I want to introduce you to one one of my best friends, Leatricia Manson. She put a lot of hard work into today. So she's also a Michigan weedster.

Thank you, happy hashbash wooo all right?

Who has one of these?

Put it up?

Who's got one? Have already got one? Who you see this?

This right here is what happens to make the protest happen. This right here is where the contributors for this event, when people come together to make sure we can get permits and people cleaning up all that good stuff. This is a grassroots event that means it's made by the people for the people. So I am the producer of this publication this year. You can see that it is

Them, Nature's Remedy.

If you got a bag, you're gonna see there might also be a golden ticket in there from Tree Street Packaging. So I don't know if anybody got the golden ticket, come up here and see us. We'd like to give you a hugger, maybe take a picture with you. Bloom City, Misty Mountain, Lisif Tree Street, Triple Phoenix, Hot Cat. If you guys got out of those hot cats, got free French fries, like twenty five hundred coupons of French fries came out to you guys.

But also we got.

Old school hash Met's Cafe, time Wise Cannabis Life, Wildness, Harm Reduction Michigan Windwood Organics, Cannabis Consuls, Son and Daughters, Apothecare, Rue Law Expungement, excuse me, Glenn Asa green Sam, Thank you Green Sam too for your third year at the opat Michigan Psychedelic Society World three Judges, Mike Bros. Michigan Weedzeters. I am see here, Freedom Grow, Michigan Liberation more than hope to leander a flash flipping. So thank you very

Thank you so much, Jady, Hi everybody.

My name is Katie Lynch Lndgren.

I am from Niles, Michigan, over near the other side of the state. I am the daughter of George Lynch, who is an avid consumer and someone that I absolutely adore and look up to. He is a co founder. We are family business. We are a family business in Niles. Like I said, we have Greenstein the provisioning center, we screen, We do everything that we can in order to be

So, my fellow cannabis and.

In cannabis enthusiasts, as we continue to march forward, let's carry with us the spirit of those that came before us. Let's be mindful of the sacrifices that were made, and let's ensure that the industry that we fought so hard to build remains true to its roots. I'm proud to stand here today to use my voice and to influence and be a steward of our industry, and I invite each and every one of you to join me in this journey together. Let's celebrate our victories, Let's honor our past.

Legal, but truly liberated.

Let's continue this conversation find me on Instagram. Let's keep fighting for a future where cannabis is celebrated and not criminalized. Thank you, and let's keep the spirit of hash burning bright.

Hello, happy hashbash. I am excited to get to introduce one of my dear friends. You may know him as Comrade Counselman on Twitter. Counselman Goodman has come down from Pontiac with us today. Mikail is notorious for speaking his mind and holding people's feet to the fire. So he is an ally of friend and I'm thankful. Please give your hands up for Mikhaile Goodman, Comrade Counselman.

Hello everyone, Hey, we can do a little bit better than that.

Hello everyone, So before I say anything, I take it it is just fair and respectful that we take a moment of silence for everyone in this movement who has come before. For me, especially is my best friend. Some of you may know her. Her name was Aa Abbas. She was very involved in the space. She is the entire reason why I am in politics the way that I am to this day.

So if we can't just take a quick moment.

Of silence for one of my closest friends. So this is my second year speaking at Hashbash. I do it in honor of my friend every well now for the second year, hopefully I'll be invited to more. And it is because activism is so extremely important to this space and everything that we do. We have not a arrived at the point to be able to have a college campus diag full of fucking stoners just by sitting on

War ground for the war on.

Drugs that has hurt so many of our community.

And unfortunately, we have the people who have found a way to privatize and profit off of what is medicine for so many people. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel because despite all the fighting back and all the bullshit that comes from the corporate benefactors who want to pocket all of the money for themselves to hide what is a miracle plant for so many people. Behind this paywall, we have so many things that are happening. We have people like Jaden. We have

I know that I wouldn't make it through some city.

Council meetings sometimes if I did not smoke weed before.

So I stand up here to.

Say one, free the weed, keep fighting hard to make sure that shit happens not for the people with money, but for us, not them us. So with that, I have no clue who is coming up next, but I do want to say thank you so much for all of you coming out here to hash Bash, showing the support for the people and the movement that has been able to make this happen and will continue to make shit happen because we cannot stop. And I know, good and damn well, ain't none of us back here or

Thanks cool, all right, councilman, goodman, thank you very much.

Okay.

Coming up next to is an educator of ntheogens, a therapist, one of the founders of Anthiofests, which typically takes place right here in September and the head of the Michigan Psychedelic Society.

Please welcome Julie Barron. Thank you so much.

Hi everybody. It is such an honor to be with you all here today. My first Hashbash was nineteen eighty seven. I was fifteen years old. I went to school here. This has always been a really important day and a really important movement.

In my life.

In twenty twenty, we were the third city in the nation to decriminalize psilosicide I been and other entheogenic plants here in ann Arbor. It was a big move and we keep this the plant Power to the People movement moving right. So cannabis was our our first movement in that way, and this movement is not over. The cannabis movement clearly is not over, as you can hear from all the speakers today. But we have to keep the work going, and we've started to include other plant allies.

That's not what this is.

This is a war on liberation. And I don't want us to get caught up. Actually that's not true. Enjoy all the substances. Enjoy the heck out of them, use them, use them for you know, personal work, use them for spiritual work, use them for fun. But don't get caught up in that. This is a movement about liberation, right, This is a movement about a liberation, So don't get distracted.

Keep focus.

Enjoy the medicine, use the medicine, but then put that energy towards empowerment of all of the people here and all of the people who are not here, and all the people who've worked before us to get here to this point now, and those that will continue to work into the future. This psychedelic movement is about building community. It's about getting people together. It is a community movement, so it literally requires each one of us to do

Thank you so much.

Hey Julie, Oh, where'd you find him?

Roughly?

I got car keys in my hand, found roughly that way. I'm gonna put them in Jamie's capable hands. They are up here with a gold kind key lanyard. Uh with that, I'm looky. Yes, I get to introduce another good friend of mine, our state Senator, Senator jeff Erwin.

He is no.

Stranger to this community, been fighting for us a long time in Lansing. Very happy to always have him in our corner, our State Senator jeff Erwin.

Okay, all right, thank you, Leah, thank you. Hashbash twenty twenty four. Is this a beautiful day.

At ann Arbor or what?

Absolutely, it's a beautiful day to celebrate what we've done here in Michigan, where we have the best cannabis reform law on the entire country. Michigan is doing it right and we need you to stay engaged so we can keep doing it better and better. It's a beautiful day, a beautiful cannabis legalization law here in Michigan. And I am always honored to be with you here on hashbash to do a couple of things.

One to welcome you to this beautiful city.

Ann Arbor here on the University of Michigan campus has been the epicenter of cannabis activism here in America for over forty years. All right, yes, and thank you for being here again to celebrate our path to progress, to celebrate the great law. We have to celebrate the idea that nobody should be put in jail for using a plant like cannabis.

All right, So thank you for being with us here today.

Thank you for celebrating the great weather, thank you for celebrating the cannabis plant. And the second thing I'm here to do is to remind you of your responsibilities to each other, to this movement and to cannabis. What I want to ask you to do is I want to ask you to get active politically.

I want you to vote right.

I want you to vote this fall and this fall when Michigan becomes the epicenter of a national political campaign, I want you to raise your voices and ask every one of those politicians, what do you think about cannabis?

Do you think people should be put in jail for you un in the cannabis.

No, there's one right answer, and these politicians are only gonna get to the right.

Answer if you ask them.

When these federal candidates come through, I want you to ask them, what are we gonna do about descheduling cannabis at the federal level. Let's make sure that Michigan leads the way so that nobody has to go to jail for using cannabis. So these when these national politicians and when these local and state politicians come and ask you for your vote, are you gonna ask them what they think about cannabis laws?

All right? And I want you to. I want you to take it a step further.

I'm here today as a state senator here in the fifteenth district, dressed up like a state senator because I want you to know that there are people like you walking around in your town every day that you need to build a relationship with. You need to know your city council people. You need to know your sheriff and your prosecutor. You need to know who your mayor is.

So let's work together.

Let's make sure we continue to celebrate and protect this law, protect home grow, protect against some of the attacks and lancing to raise your taxes. Make sure that we stand up for local access. And then together, let's take the next step. Let's make sure we legalize ntheogens. Let's make sure we criminalize drugs and make sure that this horrible war, this war on drugs against our people is ended. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you all for

We're happy to have you. Thank you.

Yeah, I appreciate it, all right, Senator Irwin.

Everybody remember at John's eightieth birthday party in Flint, Senator Irwin showed up with a commemoration signed by other lawmakers, the governor, a lot of people to pay tribute to Johnson clear for his contribution to civil rights and culture. And that was really cool. And of course he's been in Ali for many years. Let's hear it again for Senator Jeff Irwin, please.

And some announcements. There are some keys here GMC keys.

With the fob please let me know. And for sure, Brandon Martinez, please come see me. I have your wallet, so and if anybody finds that ring, let me know. These things happen at these events. So coming up, we have a speaker who's a passionate medical cannabis advocate who's done some good organizing this year to help try to affect some policy change and make it easier for people

Forum to let people know what's going on.

And so it's a pleasure to introduce to you for the first time in Hashbash Summer Sky.

Do you want to hold on?

All right?

Thanks?

All right, thank you so much for having me, Jamie Lowell, thank you for inviting me here. And before I speak, I just want to say rest in peace to Johnson Claire, Rest and peace direct, Rest in peace to every single person who has been negatively impacted by the War on drugs, People that suffered from various different medical conditions that could have been treated by cannabis, people that unfortunately had to

And so my name is Summer Sky.

And I have been incredibly passionate about medical cannabis since I was sixteen years old.

A little bit of background about me.

I immediately went into the cannabis industry after I graduated from Central at.

The age of twenty one.

There's truly no need for me to really discuss anything else that I've done professionally. Today is the fifty third hashbas celebration, and you know, it's about the journey and the fight for being able to use cannabis medicinally and recreationally. In fact, just being able to work in cannabis and being able to stand here today is absolutely a privilege and a privilege that some people will never be able to experience because they're incarcerated or they passed away before

Seizures for their children.

And ever since then, I have been incredibly passionate about the medical side of cannabis and an advocate for it, and just to clarify, I'm not a doctor, but in my opinion, if cannabis was an option for my cousin, there is no doubt in my soul that he would not only be alive, but he would have been able to talk and walk because the inabilities were side effects of the medications to subdue as seizures. And ever since then,

A magazine where they interviewed the VP.

Of MJ Biscon and it made me realize that I could work in the cannabis industry and help people and advocate for medical and decriminalized cannabis. And after that, I knew that I was going to work in cannabis and that there would be nothing to stop me. About a year and a half into my career, I received the worst phone call I could ever hear.

My grandma died. She was essentially like my second mother.

Throughout the last two decades of her life, she suffered with rheumatoid arthritis.

The last ten years of her life, she could barely open her hands.

She could really only make use of her pointer finger and her thumb, but it was still incredibly difficult for her to pick up things and just live her daily life. And so with that, you know, having that constant chronic pain, it's debilitating for anyone. And I always, you know, ever since I became an advocate, I started advocating for her to at least take TVD gummies topicals, but she was

And it's so sad.

Because instead of using all these different laboratory made medicines, we could just be using plant medicine.

The system is broken. The fact that it's okay, so yeah, I'm sorry.

It seems like we have another possible medical scenario over here and we have to kind of like hold up until we can get some resolution with it. So we're gonna freeze for a minute, see if we can get some attention over there that's needed.

Sorry, everybody, and thank you very much.

So far.

We'll get we'll get we'll get right back to her.

And unfortunately the story does continue.

Last Thanksgiving, my dad was having some health issues to the point where he couldn't participate in the holiday and he actually had to have my mom drive into the hospital and it was discovered that he actually had lung cancer, and that was the most one of the scariest moments I've ever experienced in my whole life, and I immediately contacted my resources and my support systems to get RASO

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people.

That there are a lot of people who unfortunately never had access to it, to cannabis to treat their cancer, their their epilepsy, their their rheumatoid arth right, various different conditions and it is just absolutely devastating. And if if more doctors were open to cannabis as a treatment, there would be far less deaths from permeable, preventable illnesses and cancer. Again,

John.

It is as a as a community is it is our responsibility to continue to fight for what is right and how this plant should be handled medically and legally. As scary as it can be to use your voice, it really is all that we have as people and individuals. It is our It is our most powerful tool and asset for talking about and fighting for what is right instead of just letting the system dictate how the industry

My closing is that.

You know, I empower all of you to fight for medical care for your loved ones and family members before it's too late.

Thank you.

All right, Summer Sky, Thank you very much again. We have keys and a wallet up here, so hopefully somebody decides that they could use it and they claim it anybody can use a wall, all right. So very happy to introduce our next speaker. Last few years, he's been stepping up to represent a lot of veterans issues in this cannabis community. He's done a lot of work in Michigan and nationally and this is not his first time, but it's always great to have him here and let

Thanks well, I appreciate it.

Hash Bashed twenty twenty four. How's everybody doing today? My name is Anton Harp Junior, and I always like to start off with a couple of different things about who I am and what I represent. First and foremost, I'll start off and say that I'm a very proud first generation Palestinian American and my family came to this wonderful country back in the sixties after fleeing the occupied territory

This wonderful day that we've been blessed with.

You know, I took an oath to defend that flag with my life, and I honor that oath. But the reality is our country has not stepped up and provided the proper resources.

To our men and women who have put it all.

On the line.

They haven't.

But what we do have, we have a wonderful plant, the cannabis plant that we're all here today to honor. This plant can save lives, It has saved lives. Is a cancer survivor of the burn pits in Iraq. This plant provided me with the quality of life that I wouldn't have had otherwise. Not many people realize that when we legalized cannabis back in twenty eighteen, we the people set aside forty million dollars to research the effects of cannabis in PTSD in our veteran community.

Not many people realize.

That that was supposed to be a five year study we are three years into this study and no research has been taking place. The state of Michigan needs to be held accountable. Transparency is key.

Where is our money being spent?

They won't tell you.

The University of Michigan has received millions of dollars. When I ask where that money is being spent, I'm blown off. Wayne State University got twenty million dollars of our tax dollars and will not tell us where.

It's being spent.

Where is the accountability?

And each day that goes by that they're lining their pockets with our tax dollars. Twenty two veterans are killing themselves because they have no resources. Hopelessness is what leads to suicide in my community. So with that being said, I appreciate you, I appreciate our country, and I appreciate everybody coming out here.

To support us and listen to us.

This is community and this is what we're about.

Thank you, God bless.

And with that said, next up a great friend of mine, a pillar of the cannabis community, Miss Brandy Zinc, the director of Americans for Safe Access in Michigan. We wouldn't be where we are today without her.

So Brandy, well, thank you Anton.

Thank you for your service, Thank you for your support.

We really actually wouldn't be here without Johnson Clair. We wouldn't be here without Lenny Sinclair.

We wouldn't be.

Here without so many of our brothers and sisters who have walked on.

With great love in my heart, I ask you to please light.

One up for Rick Thompson, for Rory Gold, for Brat Lampkey, for Steve Lovinger, and for all.

Of our fallen warriors that we've lost through the years.

If you want to light one up and say the name of your loved one now that you're missing, that you wish were here here in our hearts and in our spirit. And they want us to keep the fire going. They want us to remember why we have the amazing law that we have in Michigan. How many people are here who are not from Michigan. Raise your hands. I see you, Ohio, I see you, Indiana, I see you, Kentucky and Illinois and Washington State, in Florida and everywhere else that you.

Come from far and wide.

I see you. I love you.

I thank you for being here in this beautiful day, in this hallowed ground. This is an election year. You must make sure that you and everyone you know is registered to vote. That is why we have the amazing rights that.

We have and enjoy and love in Michigan.

It's because we were registered to vote, and we use that power.

It is time for the federal government to.

Listen to the states.

Our federal government has done great.

Harm through the prohibition of cannabis.

It is time that we deschedule cannabis and remove it. So I want you to get out your phones, and I'm gonna give you a very important number.

I want you to call this number and find out.

Who your representatives are and for the numbers for your senators where you live.

Get out your phone.

It's too oh two two two four three one two one.

That's too oh two two two four three one three two. That is the capital switchboard, And that's who you need to call, so that you can make sure that your congress people know it is time to de schedule cannabis. I also want you to make sure that you're paying attention to what's going on in your state. There are discussions in Michigan's legislature to merge the cannabis laws for medical and for adult use. I say these discussions are going on. They need to have a patient in the room.

Our state legislators and our congress.

People need you to call them, to write them, to show up at their town halls or their coffee hours.

They do listen, but only if you speak up.

Your voice is your power, and we are mighty, mighty powerful, as you know. But we cannot take it for granted that just because legalization has passed, that everything is just hunky dory.

Patients still have many many risks.

You know.

We have a laws that we have now because medical patients were taken off the battlefield first. So we need to protect the integrity of our medical marijuana law. We need to make sure that you get your card. If you have a qualifying condition and you let your card go, you need to renew your card. If you know someone who has a qualifying condition, you need to get a card and make sure they get their card.

The numbers that we have in our medical program are going.

Down, and that is because I think that many people take it for granted with adult use that medical patients are protected. Medical patients need equity in the state, and we need to be make sure that medical patients are free from discrimination, that we are free from.

Taxes.

We need to make sure that medical patients are.

Protected for their child custody issues, for their job and their employment, for their professional licenses, if you're on probation, for driving privileges, and for housing, and let us not forget our veterans. All of those people are at risk, and we need to make sure that our state legislators who are they're going to try to merge the two programs, make sure that they.

Do not forget the patients.

I'd like to thank everyone who has joined Americans for Safe Access and signed ups that you can be empowered and you can have the knowledge, and you can pay attention to what's going on with our legislatures and both federal and local and state issues. So I want to thank the people who have been contributing to our Michigan.

Chapter, my vice chair Jamie Lowell.

We have here Anton represents our veterans. We have Miriam Halprin, we have doctor Gustrosnya, we have doctor Michael Whitty, and then Gail Witty, And I want to thank everyone who's ever been involved.

This is a beautiful movement.

That we have and we need you to join us too.

So safeaccessnow dot org is Americans for Safe Access. We are the largest and oldest patient organization. We're in all fifty states. So keep the fire going, keep that fire burning for those who have walked on, and we walk on and love and freedom.

And I'd like to thank this young man.

He's a courageous young man, Jaden, who's gonna talk to you about.

What he's doing with.

Jaden's Law is one of the laws that we need to remind our legislators that we need to pass.

All right, I'd like to give a big shout out to my big friend Rick at this aka mister fun guy.

Hello hashbash.

My name's rick Anstis, and I am tired of our government in how the fuck they're running our lives and our law.

I'm so sick of it that I'm.

Running for Barrion County Commissioner this year because that's how that's how you make the changes.

You get involved.

Like everybody else has said here, you call your state representatives, you make communications with them, you have dialect, you go back and forth and with that, you build relationships, and with those relationships, you build structure for moving things forward because a lot of these legislators don't understand the medicinal

We don't need that.

We need an opportunity to understand that there's a medical program in this state that allows you to have a personal caregiver where they personally attend to your medical needs with this plant. People should know that if it's an option, then it needs to be an option all the way across the board. The Health Department needs to recognize it,

We need more testimonies.

We need the testimonies we had in twenty sixteen, two thousand and eight.

We need the people that are being healed and pulled back.

I heard a couple stories tonight that were great or today that people using this plant to save their lives.

We need to continue that message.

And again, yes there's fun times for the use of this, but we can't allow it to be so de minimized that it's like alcohol or cigarettes, because it certainly isn't. So with that, I appreciate everybody here and let's just keep fighting. Call your local representatives tell them that you want late to see Jaden's law. Get passed and push through to the House floor and into law.

These kids need this. Thank you, Hi, I'm back again.

This time I get to introduce the h is ranking elected. Here are congresswomen. Congresswoman Debbie Dingle, one of the voices that has been fighting in DC for the federal reform of our beloved plant and is fearless in all she does and says very thankful for her friendship to our community. And let's give her a warm welcome, the wonderful Congresswoman Debbie Dingle.

Are we all having fun? Are we just high on life?

Good?

So it's great to be here with all of you again.

I still always think I'm one of the least likely people to be here, but I feel very strongly about a few things. And I want to thank Jamie Lowell for organizing another great hashbash. It's the fifty third one. Now, I do think that you were at the fifty fourth for a fifty fourth Oh he was at the fourth one. I wasn't, but I wish i'd been there for John Lennon. Now, I wish we could get, you know, Paul McCartney to come for tradition.

Maybe we try for that next.

But I do think that we just want to take a moment and remember and honor the life of our friend John Sinclair.

His and it's sad that he died just a few.

Days before today, but he is one of the reasons we're all here together, and that we have been coming together for decades.

So we're going to.

Keep up this fight in his memory and with his strength and his conviction.

And I want to you.

Know, I'm still standing up here and have never smoked marijuana, swallowed marijuana, or done anything. But I think everybody's got I know, you guys are going to try to get me. I mean, I tell the truth, but I still think, you know, if you want to, you should be able to.

And people have made their voices heard.

More Americans now live in a state that has legalized marijuana, and a new Pere research analysis has shown that most also have at least one dispensary in their county. But I might not like tell you what in memory of John Sinclair or I'm not quite sure what the word is. You know, ten years ago he said, not as many people come. I think we've got a great crowd, don't we have a great crowd. But there wasn't as much to fight for anymore, and I would beg to differ.

The fact of the matter is we got to change our.

Laws to keep up with what's happening across America.

A patchwork of laws doesn't work.

There are a lot of pieces to this, but that one's the most important to me. This one is we have to decriminalize marijuana and get people out of jail.

Time.

Last Congress, we passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expunge in Act to decriminalize marijuana, expunge criminal records, and implement economic policies to support those hurt.

Most by the War on drugs.

And people who think this doesn't matter, I want to tell you something.

Even with twin t.

Four states and DC allowing legal adult use of kids and two thirds of the country allowing legal medical more than a quarter of a million people were arrested for marijuana related violations, according to a no and ninety two percent of them were just for marijuana possession. So it's time time, So we got to make sure we make your voices heard. We also have to recognize that medical marijuana helps people who are hurting period.

We know that people who are addicted or not don't get addicted.

People who are suffering from pain become addicted to pain pills.

They need to have an alternate.

I kept trying to get John Diggle to try marijuana and he wasn't.

So I took opioids and was afraid of that. But it helps.

It gives people release, and that's why last Congress I introduced the Bipartisan Medical Marijuana Research Act, which passed the House to remove bureaucatic barriers and federal roadblocks to medical marijuana use and research. So here's a reality. This industry's not going away. And I think it should be legal, and I think it should be safe.

And we've got one more problem we can't get done.

That's why I'm the original co sponsor of the Safe Banking Act to address the inequities for marijuana businesses and protect the safety and security of small businesses and their employees by increasing access to the banking system.

You shouldn't have to carry a bunch of cash around.

It's beyond time to change our federal marijuana laws period legalize it. We're wasting law enforcement's time and resources and prosecutors, but we have a prosecutor that does well. We don't have the problem here by prosecuting low level marijuana possession.

And we all know that this.

Disproportionately impacts community of color, and one simple conviction of possession can derail lives, can make it harder for jobs, housing, guaranteeing harsher sentences in the future.

It's wrong. So okay, I want you to do whatever you want to do today.

I'm going to get high in life. You can smoke, you can drink, you can do whatever. But and memory of John Sinclair, our work isn't over. We gotta get marijuana decriminalized, we gotta get safe banking, we gotta get research done, and our job isn't done until we get that done. So you don't need to talk to I'm not political today, but you don't need to talk to any Democrats.

Go talk to the Republican. So won't get this done. Thank you have fun. I'm back again.

So most of our community probably hesitates when you hear law enforcement sheriff that type of stuff. Well, I get the unique privilege of introducing you to a pro cannabis sheriff candidate who's running to be the next shaff right here in Washingall County. My dear friend Alicia Dyer, we are in need of dire change.

Thank you Leah for that fabulous introduction. Happy hashbashaw whoo. So my name is Alisha Dyer and I'm running for sheriff and I believe that.

We need to end the war on drugs.

When I was a deputy working here, I grew up in Ipsilanti and ann Arbor was at the forefront of real change in cannabis and they were able to decriminalize it well before it was legalized in Michigan. But unfortunately in Ipsey Township, people were still getting their cars towed and people were still being harassed by the police and our sheriff's office. When I was working there before it was legalized, was doing raids after finding blunts and people's trash cans.

And we know that's not okay.

And so thankfully, due to the collective action of so many organizers and dedicated people in this cannabis space, we now have a state where we are not criminalizing cannabis and we are actually making sure that people are being supported. But we have to do more, and we have to make sure we can get this going across the country.

Here.

Go to dire twenty twenty four dot.

Com to get involved. This is a movement d y e R twenty twenty four on your phones. Donate if you're inspired, join our team.

We got this. Thank you.

Oh hey, all right, let's here for Alicia and we need a sheriff like that.

Hey, do them.

The way your police is the way your life's gonna.

Be right now, Okay, hey, the way the way you police is the way your life is gonna be.

Go ahead, listen everybody that just listened to miss Dyer, who wants to be the new sheriff. It's very important if you are here in Washington County, think about it. The sheriff is gonna dictate the rules in that county. If the Sheriff's not interested in prosecuting you for any drug crime, you know what it's called freedom.

Thanks a lot, man, Okay, how you doing all right?

Right on?

Hey, So, our next speaker has been passionately involved in this community for many years. He ran the home of Medicine on Main Street for about a decade. He's been involved in educating on cannabis and entheogens. He was one of the founders of the Anthiofest and monitored to have him come work with me at Metz Cafe here coming up when our location opens up in ann Arbor in just a few days hopefully, so help me introduce to you, mister Jim Slam.

Thank you so much, Shamie, Thank you, Jamie.

Give it up.

Happy Hashbash everybody. I'm so so honored to be here right now. You know, I've been coming here since I was probably fifteen years old, living in Saline to south of here. It's a it's a tribute to to freedom, and I thank Johnson Clair for that. I thank Johnson Clair for the activism in Michigan.

Uh for what he's brought, I think.

Uh.

I thank him for for Hashbash, because without Hashbash, there wouldn't be an Entheo Fest, which does the exact same thing, but it celebrates plant medicines like ayahuasca and eyeball gain and things like mushrooms as well. And I'm really honored to be speaking up here with all these distinguished speakers that they are so part of the activist community that we all should be a part of. And that's a call out to the youth. I've heard couple calls out for youth involvement.

And we need more of that.

I want to start here by going into uh something that I really like.

They're my favorite strains and it's a poem.

Granddaddy, Purple White Widow, Blue Dream, Gooberry, Sugar, Black Rose, Jilly Bean, Headband, Hashplant, Tangerine, Hayes.

These are a few of my favorite strains.

West Coast Celler Diesel Lemonadron, Pineapple Express and Durban Poison Island Sweet Skunk, Skywalker o G. These are a few of the best strains for me. When the match strikes win the joint lights, Edibles, hash or dabs, I simply remember my favorite strains and then I don't feel so bad. So thank you everybody for having me. And right now I want to talk about the next speaker. His name's Korn.

Please give it up for Corn.

J j.

Yeah, buddy, all right, things that lie Jim, And to all the speakers so far with sub hashbash, a lot has already been said, and I'm gonna keep it. I'm gonna keep it really brief. Like so many folks up here have talked about. If you're here today, you are powerful. Your voice is powerful, Your voice is meaningful, and we owe it to each other to use those voices to advocate for what we know is right. Michigan deserves better,

We demand more.

We deserve it.

End the war on drugs, defund the police, and defund the prison industrial complex.

Much love, thank you, thank you.

Korn All right, everybody, my name's Josh Kover. I'm the CEO of METS Cafe. I was an attorney for a long time and fought the drug war all across the state of Michigan.

I fought the drug war because I grew up in.

A home where my parents Douw's cannabis and now my parents weren't criminals, and I'm glad to say today in Michigan they're not.

I'm really honored to be here in Hashbash today.

One of the things I think is the greatest about Hashbash is kind of in the name hash Bash, right, and the bash part is that, like, we're all celebrating something today, but it's also a protest and it's very It's not real common that you get people together and we all celebrate something at the same time we're protesting something. And I think that's what's really beautiful about this place

Lots of changes still need to be made.

At the state level, it's also on the controlled substance List.

Still, that's fucked up. We need less regulation.

It's choking the industry, it's preventing access to medicine to people. We also need change at the local level. We need more municipalities to allow for marijuana establishments. And that's important because everyone here that's from Michigan, each one of you can run for city council, you can be on a planning commission, you can get involved, and that's really important.

There's nobody better I could introduce next. He's a dear.

Friend of mine. His name is al Witt, mister gaylord himself. All right, hold on, I just want to say one thing. I just wanted to little little miscommunication. I just wanted Josh to introduce l and not necessarily go yet, so.

I'll just keep it quick. But I want some people to know that.

Josh became an attorney specifically to fight the drug war. He's now running a company and he's put together a team of people who understand the history of cannabis, who understand the culture, understand the nature of the product, who take it seriously.

We have a passion for it, and so that's that's.

Very respectworthy in this day and age, and he should really be acknowledged for that in a lot of the great work and landmark cases that he's been involved into. Remember the stupid transportation law. Josh was the one that helped to get rid of that thing. So please give it up again one more time for Josh. And yes, Galer City Councilman mister.

Al Witt has best. How's it going out there?

So nine years ago I was walking around to that card. Nobody kne who the fuck I was. Two months later, got raided by the state police and they put me in jail. It's some bullshit, right for some fucking we manh Thirty five people got raided. I was the only one to stand up and fight. Two people were killed, families.

Got some part.

They took everything from us. It's a bunch of bullshit, you know what I mean. But you know, I got out of jail with fucking nothing. They took everything, and I was like, that's bullshit. There's people out here dying that need this plan. So I stood up and I chose right there that we're gonna fight this and that. Ever since that day, I never looked back. And it changed my life and it got us here. I ended up going to jail for a while. Josh Kobt was

That's why we gotta stand up for this shit.

And guys like Johnson Claire, he's gonna started all this, and we owe all the respect to those guys.

Lots of us have died.

And far we're gonna continue to carry this tarch, this worrying over this. Still people enjoy it, jail for it. Prison families are still affected. People are still fucking dying. But corporate moneys are making bank off it and they ain't doing shit.

That's why we with Met's Cafe.

We work with the caregivers, We work the local people, and were team enough to take on these corporate hassholes and give you people what's right.

And that's good.

We good medicine for a good fucking price. But we out here fighting and this shit ain't over and we need to get everybody out this jail, all right. In the word of Johnson Clair, he said, a good friend of mine. He said, fuck the motherfucking authority. I'm out and I gotta bring in the next big hitter. This is our Cathay Kirk, twelve time high time chance edible activists, the man, motherfucking legend. Here you go, brother Kathin Kirk gets an on it. Thank you all, God bless you folks.

Well, I'm gonna answer.

That for you.

I will remember John Sinclair, a man that gave up his life and went to jail for giving two joints to an undercover agent. I will remember the hard work of Adam Brooke. I will remember the hard work of the activists that stood out in the sun, the snow, the hot heat, everything that we went through to collect six natures to make legalization, only to be pushed out of something we helped build. I remember the medical benefit of this plant. I will remember the fifty three narcotics.

You don't have to go through that, and God bless you for that.

I will remember many people that are in jail and have been jailed and had their families disrupted over a cannabis plant. I will remember the consequences when caught with cannabis back in the day. Many of you don't have to go through that. I want you all to remember quite a few things. We all stand here in solidarity.

There's many warriors that have passed this year.

John Sinclair a few days ago, I want to remember and some people said it today.

Kershavery also known as.

Peanut Butter, Doug Orton, Rick Thompson has Prelude, Steve Levenger, Brad Limke. Many of these people stood out there and fought for the rights that you all have now. I will remember for the rest of my life what it's like now to stand in public and smoke a joint without that gun and boot in my face, and you should remember that too. Before I go, I want to say one more word. I want you all to remember this moment. Look to the people to your left, look

That's what brought legalization.

I also remember building the very first, along with many others, the very first dispensary east of Colorado. We did that in Yipsilanti, Michigan. Give yourself a random applause that happened here, and these people up on these steps made that so again when you hear that voice, go.

Why do I gotta go to hashbash?

It's legal point the things out I said to you, Remember those traditions, Remember those people, all the hard work that they did.

God bless you all and thank you.

Back again this time tender.

Do someone else in the judicial world, our prosecutor here in Washington County has been an ally and a friend to us for many many years. Now most counties aren't as lucky. So please welcome to the stage our prosecutor, my friend Ellie Savat.

What's up, hashbash? I want to make one thing, very very clear. Standing here as the Washtot County prosecutor, I can assure all of you not a single person is being prosecuted today for the use or possession of cannabis. And by the way, that's not just true today because we don't prosecute that in Washingtot County. Yes, marijuana's legal. Cannabis is legal, but if you have like a little bit too much marijuana, a little bit too much cannabis,

We call that person a collector, a connoisseur.

Why would we prosecute somebody for being a connoisseur of cannabis. But I want to say that despite the fact that it is legal here, despite the fact that this movement has largely succeeded in Michigan, the work isn't done. There are still far too many people who remain who can continue to have criminal convictions for possession or use of a substance that.

Is now legal. Think about that. Why on earth should ay criminal conviction.

Remain on your record for something that is no longer a crime. So, not only do we need to legalize cannabis across the country, we need to expunge all of those old criminal cannabis convictions. We need to do that in all fifty states. We need to do that on the federal level. And this movement that started here on the steps of the Michigan Diag in ann Arbor and got cannabis legalized here is the movement that will ultimately ensure that that is the case across all fifty states

Thank you, thank you.

Right.

I think this is the last intro I have And this man is currently one of my team Wilson favorites are stay representative out of ippsil aany As a freshman REP. Came up and took up a bunch of bills that former friends had left due to term limits, and he has fought to educate and talk to his caucus about why there is so much more work to do. I'm super excited to introduce you guys to Stay Reped Jimmy Wilson.

What's up, past Bash, I'm Jimmy Wilson Stay Representative out of Ipsilanti and up in Lanson.

We've been working hard.

I got my legislator director there, Leah Dotson, and we hit the ground running.

We got in there. It's a lot of things we need to change.

And let me tell you one thing in specific right now, in our K twelve system, our students they can have their medicine stored in nurses offices and secretary's offices.

But our pediatric medical.

Marijuana patients that are K twelve, they actually can't store their stuff their medicine in the office is the same way. And so my legislation that I've introduced, it's a reintroduction. This is called Jaden's Law. And I don't know where's Jaden at where's Jaden? Oh, they're probably up there. Okay, we got Jaden young man. Now, he has been pushing for this for a long time. He suffers from seizures

Stored in the school.

Why can't this other control substance also be stored in the school so that way these kids can have their medicine the same way. I need you all to make sure you're supporting Jaden's law and make sure you reach out to your state reps and your state senators to.

Support in Jaden's law.

We got to get this over the finish line and bring fairness in the school system. Now, one more thing, and let me bring Lee up here. So we've been talking a lot about descheduling at the federal level, but we also need to get that done here at the state level. We need to deschedule cannabis here at the state level. And next week we're gonna be introducing the John Sinclair Act to deschedule cannabis here in Michigan. It's pastime. This is twenty twenty four. All of our constituents, all

I hope I can get you a support on that. Once again. I'm Jimmy Wilson.

Thank you all, all right, Representative Wilson.

He's really kind of picked up the georch and become our friend in the State House of Representatives. And obviously he is introducing some sensible legislation to help out with cannabis reform. So I've getten some help here from uh from Leah who he just brought up in order to introduce many people today. But shear Surf, she herself deserves to be recognized little bit more. She's the chair of the Cannabis Caucus here in Michigan. She's on staff with

Happy Hashbash.

So I want to start by taking a moment to remember Zahuddah Boss and Rick Thompson, the two mentors I had who kept me in this world and kept me coming back. Sahuda was an epilepsy patient. She was a devout Muslim woman who broke all the norms to say that this medicine works for me. And instead of staying quiet, she got as loud as possible.

And so me and my friends have promised we will.

Stay as loud as possible. There is so much to do, There is so much to keep talking about and celebrating. This is a community like none other. This plan has brought people from all walks of life together, and I am so thankful for that. You've heard that I mess around in politics, government, cannabis, campaign work policy. I am one voice, and I desperately want you to come storm lancing with me in those offices. Come tell your stories.

Want to come home.

There are so many people who think we got our two acts and we're done.

We are not done.

We will not be quiet.

You will not keep us out of those rooms, and you will never touch our medicine. So thank you for this community, for the friendships. And again thank you to the people Zahada to Rick Thompson to John Sinclair for the lessons and the things that they taught, and for taking someone like me who never thought I'd be in this world and saying, come, this is where you belong, this is home.

So happy hashbash, keep pushing.

Keep smoking, right, all right, thank you Leah, very much appreciated.

Thanks for helping me out today, of course too. All right, we're almost at the end.

We have a couple more great speakers, a couple of great attorneys have been involved with us for many years. Our next attorney is one of the partners in the Great Cannabis Council Law firm. His other main partner, mister Matt Abels right out there, joined us surprisingly today. I'm very happy to have him around Cannabis Council has done nothing but cannabis work since mainly since even before the

Let's here for Tom Levine.

All right, Ashmash. So here we are. We've come a long way.

We could grow twelve plants at home and keep the entire harvests under lock and key.

Now, how cool is that? So here we are. However, we do have a lot.

Of work to do.

We still don't have fair employer treatment. That's a huge issue that we need to deal with. And the descheduling of cannabis, both federally and on the state level.

Would have a ripple through effect.

It affects housing, it affects banking, it affects all of these different issues. If you just do that one thing of descheduling cannabis, so that would be the big.

Step forward that we need. The current plan to.

Reschedule it is really insufficient and it's inconsistent with the way that we do business at the state level. So it doesn't really make sense. So I encourage you to get out there and vote. And I see a bunch of young people cutting through here. We need to run for office. We need people who are smokers who are running for office. We need people to get out and vote to make sure these policies keep moving in the

You know this needs to stop.

I still get employment issues where people really have trouble and here they are using it as a medicine and they haven't used it in days, and they're still not able to get the job.

It's just injustice.

The social justice that this movement represents really came through strong when we saw the photographs of the people still serving in prison for marijuana.

So here we go, man.

Let's sell break because we have made a long, long way. Let's get involved and let's smoke some weed people, all.

Right, for the weed? All right?

Thanks Tom.

Tom Levine, Cannabis Council and deputy director of the Revived Michigan Normal Chapter. I might add, yeah, so let's hear it for Michigan normal, Hey, so so, rounding things out and then we're gonna get to some music. Another great attorney been involved in this in this world for many years since the change of the uh, the Medical Act and two thousand and eight or so, he's does a lot of work with us with the Great Lace Expongement Network. Thankfully, and uh uh we'll be back to wrap this up

It's up hash bash h. Take a look around and thank your neighbor, thank yourself. Look at how far we've come. The voices and the faces and the stories that you've seen, you've heard today started because they were sick of something, They were sick of someone's shit. They wanted to change, they wanted to be free. And in their search for freedom,

And those paths are not done.

The work is not done, the accomplishments are not complete. So finish, be sick of it, pursue that freedom for yourself and bring the rest of us along with you. Become the government. Don't fuck the government, don't fight the government. Become the government. The reason that you see these friendly faces up here who can speak out and their ability to change with the positions that they have, is because they were sick of it and the change.

That they wanted to see they became. They did it.

Take that job, run for that office. Sick of shit, Go be that shit, make it happen. It's up to you. That's how we got here, That's how we got this far.

Thank you, all right, all right, thanks man, Thanks all right, Paul to Linda. That's it for the speakers. Really appreciate everybody listening to everybody's great presentation today. I appreciate everybody's participation. Please help us clean up a little bit. There's extra garbage cans and stuff this year, so if you could be mindful of that, that'd be less work for us when this is all over. But now we have time