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FREE THE WEED 07
A Column by John Sinclair
I’d like to begin by inviting everyone to join me at the Hastings Street Ballroom in Detroit on October 2nd in celebration of my 70th birthday—an unbelievable occurrence that I’m determined to enjoy as fully as I can, surrounded by my family and friends and musicians of all stripes and fellow music lovers of all persuasions. Medical marijuana patients and registered care-givers of very sort are particularly welcome, since we will be working our way up to the first Michigan Medical Cannabis Cup to be held only two weeks later.
High Times magazine will celebrate its 24th annual Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam from November 20-24, and anyone with the means to travel to Viper Central for the Cup is urged to do so. It’s a great time and it will give the marijuana smoker, sick or well, the unique experience of enjoying your favorite form of cannabis in a coffeeshop or café where you are not subject to arrest or official harassment of any kind and you can buy your weed or hashish over the counter, smoke it there or take it with you wherever you want to go while you’re in the Netherlands.
But if you’re here in Michigan in the middle of October you can enjoy the unprecedented experience of gathering with fellow smokers, patients and care-givers to celebrate our state’s medical marijuana movement and help evaluate the locally produced strains of our preferred medication that are being offered as candidates for the first Michigan Medical Cannabis Cup awards.
The event will take place October 15-16 at Bert's Warehouse Theater in Detroit’s Eastern Market featuring the world’s premier medical-marijuana competition, a two-day medical marijuana expo, and a special medical smoking area where qualified card-carrying patients can meet and medicate.
There will also be a series of panels and seminars with doctors, patients, researchers, growers, dispensary owners, activists, and leaders of the medical-marijuana movement, including High Times magazine’s own cultivation editors.
The doors at Bert’s will open at noon on both days, and there’ll be a frantic Saturday-night VIP party away from the Eastern Market premises starting at 8:00 p.m. at The Warehouse, 140 Clark Street on Detroit’s southwest side, featuring musical performances by the 420 Funk Mob and rapper Royce Da 5’9”.
Topping everything off will be a closing-night Medical Cannabis Cup awards ceremony honoring the top sativas, indicas, hybrids, concentrates and edibles selected by High Times’ expert panel of judges from the produce entered by Michigan’s legal cannabis dispensaries and grow collectives.
The Medical Cannabis Cup kicks off on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. with a seminar on Legal Medicine in Michigan conducted by attorney Thomas Lavigne, Dr. Paul Meyer, M.D., medical hemp-oil inventor Gersh Avery, and Kriss Pullen-Gideons of Mary Jane’s Helping Hands.
The Marijuana-Law Reform Activism seminar follows at 2:30 with marijuana activist Brandy Zink, Chuck Ream of MedMar, and Robin Schneider from Michigan Moms United to End the War on Drugs.
At 4:00 p.m. Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, will moderate a seminar on Veterans and Medical Marijuana with attorney John Targowski, followed at 5:00 p.m. by a Cultivation seminar led by High Times Cultivation Editor Nico Escondido.
Sunday’s activities start at 1:30 p.m. with a seminar titled Your Cannabusiness conducted by Darrell Stavros of the 3rd Coast Compassion Center, Tim Potter of C-4 Dispensary, and Hilary Dulany of The Midwest Cultivator.
A definite high point in light of the current legal turmoil in Michigan will be the Political Action seminar at 3:00 p.m. Sunday featuring cannabis attorney Matt Abel, Jamie Lowell of the Michigan Association of Compassion Centers, Charmie Gholson from The Midwest Cultivator and Rick Thompson of Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine.
This writer’s own high spot will take place at 4:20 p.m. on Sunday when I’ll be honored with the High Times Lester Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award and subjected to questioning from the audience concerning my life and history as a marijuana activist since the founding of Detroit LEMAR in January 1965.
There’ll be another Cultivation Seminar at 5:00 p.m. with High Times Senior Cultivation Editor Danny Danko, and the official Awards Ceremony at 7:00 p.m. honoring the winners of the Medical Cannabis Cup for the best indicas, sativas, hybrids, concentrates and edibles in the state of Michigan.
While you’re in the Eastern Market neighborhood I’d like to invite all card-carrying medical marijuana patients and care-givers to join us for medication and fellowship all weekend at the Trans-Love Energies Compassion Club at 1486 Gratiot, where my partner Holice P. Wood and I will serve as your genial hosts during the course of this historic occasion.
There’s never been anything like this in Michigan before, and it gives all of us an unprecedented opportunity to get together and learn things, meet like-minded people, make important contacts for the future, and generally have a ball celebrating our culture and talking about what we can do to get the authorities off the backs of marijuana users and growers in Michigan once and for all. Let It Grow!
—New Orleans
September 23, 2011
© 2011 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
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