FREE THE WEED 13
A Column by John Sinclair
Highest greetings and welcome to the annual thumbing of the nose at the Michigan Drug War authorities better known as the Ann Arbor Hash Bash, held every year on the first Saturday in April at the heart of the University of Michigan campus to commemorate the all-too-short three-week period in 1972 when there were no marijuana laws in the State of Michigan whatsoever.
Following this brief but wonderful hiatus, the repression went back into effect on April 1, 1972 and continued unabated until the voting public authorized the legal use of medical marijuana in Michigan by means of a citizens’ initiative that made the ballot in the 2008 election and was enacted into law by a nearly two to one margin.
Now we’re trying again, attempting to place a measure on the 2012 ballot that would end every form of marijuana prohibition in Michigan once and for all. I’ll file a full report in my next column on the progress of the current Michigan marijuana initiative, but it’s important right now that every reader of this publication signs the petition being circulated this spring and helps ensure that the proposition makes the ballot for the November election.
In today’s corrupt political process that’s ruled by the rich people and their right-wing acolytes, there’s still no way they can thwart the will of the people when we take the law into our own hands and shape it according to our needs and beliefs by utilizing the citizens’ initiative process and exercising our basic constitutional rights.
Under this vicious plutocracy ruled by our multi-millionaire businessman governor who calls himself a “tough nerd” and his rapacious attorney general who continues to subvert the will of the citizens by repeatedly attacking the benevolent provisions of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act and cynically enlisting state and local law enforcement agencies in his criminal scheme, our salvation rests solely on the shoulders of our fellow voters and our ability to organize ourselves once again in support of ending marijuana prohibition on every level right now—this year.
Let’s get it over with now. And when we bring the War On Drugs in Michigan to a shuddering conclusion—at least as far as marijuana is concerned—let’s organize a War Crimes Tribunal and bring these war criminals like General Shuette before the bar of justice for a change.
Okay, I’m dreaming now, but the possibility of ending marijuana prohibition and beginning a new era for marijuana smokers of both the medical and recreational persuasion is finally within our grasp. Let’s grasp it! Haven’t we let them get away with this shit long enough? Isn’t it about time we exercise our political will once again and bring the terror to an end?
And another question: What is it about weed that brings out the worst in our society, turns otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals and public safety professionals into storm troopers? After all, marijuana is simply a basically harmless, naturally occurring weed, a mild euphoriant that makes us feel better, soothes our aches and pains, restores our appetite, assuages our anxieties, enhances our creativity, enables a higher level of sensuality, and promotes fellowship and good feeling among smokers from all walks of life.
I started viping 50 years ago and I’ve never been able to understand this societal enigma. As a close observer of the terrible vicissitudes of the War On Drugs, and as one of millions of Americans who have done time in prison for possessing a small amount of marijuana, it’s still impossible for me to comprehend what drives the authorities to commit their endless chain of atrocities in the name of marijuana prohibition.
The Drug War gestapo shows no sign of slowing down its relentless attack on Americans who like to get high on weed, and in fact it just keeps getting worse and worse. When I was in New Orleans earlier this month visiting with my daughter Celia, a gang of uniformed thugs from the NOPD’s 3rd District station, armed with a search warrant for marijuana alleged to having been sold from the house, stormed a residence in the city’s Gentilly neighborhood on March 7, knocked the door down and shot and killed an unarmed 20-year-old man named Wendell Allen who emerged from his room in pajama bottoms to see what was happening.
The target of the warrant, a young man named Troy Deemer, had already been arrested in possession of a pound of weed pursuant to a phony traffic stop in adjoining Jefferson Parish, but the police raided the house to see who else they might be able to incriminate.
There were five children aged 1 to 14 in the residence when the raiders hit the door, along with two young men named Davin Allen and Brendan Boles who were arrested on a charge of possession with intent to distribute 138 grams of marijuana—that’s about 4-1/2 ounces—that were found in a backpack inside a bedroom closet.
The initial police report of the raid omitted any mention of the fatal shooting and the NOPD was unable to offer an explanation of the killing of the former high school basketball star. “There is no justification,” Allen’s aunt Tanya Peters told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “Mr. Allen was in his own home.”
“I want that police officer booked with murder,” asserted Helen Shorty, Allen’s grandmother, “and I want it now.” THE NOPD has promised a “thorough, fair, open investigation” of the incident, but nothing will bring the young man back to life and you can bet that the persecution of marijuana criminals in New Orleans will continue virtually unabated.
Like I heard Stevie Wonder ask about 40 years ago: What kind of shit is that? Stop The Terror! End the War On Drugs Now!
—Oxford, Mississippi
March 27, 2012
© 2012 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved,
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