Hash Bashers Know Where The Line Is

[SmokeDog420]

When Mimi Broz drove up from Ohio for Saturday's 33rd annual Ann Arbor Hash Bash, she came prepared. She brought a drum to beat while shouting, "Pot is an herb! Bush is a dope!" She wore her Hash Bash hat loaded with politically progressive pins.
And she brought a marijuana cigarette hidden inside a pack of Pall Malls. But the joint was not smoked before its time.

Asked if she was going to light up on the University of Michigan Diag, the 39-year-old activist said: "On campus? No, I'm not an idiot. In the city? Maybe."

Possession of marijuana is a civil infraction with a $25 fine in the city of Ann Arbor. But because the U-M regents receive their authority from the state, the university's Department of Public Safety enforces state law and university ordinances. Minimum punishment is a $100 fine and/or 90 days in jail.

Event organizers urged the crowd of about 1,500 to go ahead and smoke a joint as an act of civil disobedience, but to do so later, on city property where participants could probably afford a $25 fine.

So most people smoked nicotine or nothing during the hour-long Hash Bash in which speakers promoted the medicinal use of marijuana, urged them to join the fight to legalize pot and reminded them that the current administration is no friend of the cause.

Poet John Sinclair, a former Ann Arbor resident and 1960s activist, reminded the crowd that in the early '70s, he helped elect candidates to the city council who helped change the marijuana law.

Note: Those attending hold off on lighting up while on U-M campus

Source: Ann Arbor News (MI)
Author: Jo Collins Mathis, News Staff Reporter
Published: Sunday, April 4, 2004
Copyright: 2004 The Ann Arbor News
Contact: letters@annarbornews.com
Website: http://www.mlive.com/aanews/index.ssf