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HIGHER GROUND 14
A Column by John Sinclair
Highest greetings from the Pacific Northwest, where I’m visiting the Green states
of Oregon and Washington this week as part of a crazy presentation called the
WTF Festival and cheering on the ubiquitous signature collectors for the 2012
marijuana legalization initiative now underway in Oregon.
The other night I appeared as a guest on Paul Stanford’s marijuana TV show in
Portland, where he explained that the Oregon legalization forces have already
amassed 70,000 of the 92,000 signatures they’ll need to get the proposal on the
ballot in November.
The picture in Michigan isn’t nearly so rosy: Before I left Detroit for the West
Coast I talked with Michigan marijuana initiative organizers Matt Abel and Brandy
Zink at Holice P. Wood’s 8th annual 420 Party at the Hastings Street Ballroom,
where they reported that we have less than 50,000 signatories so far out of the
total number of 322,000 needed by the July deadline.
In the end, of course, success will depend on Michigan’s citizens responding to
this terrific opportunity to end marijuana prohibition once and for all: signing and
circulating the petitions and getting enough signatures in favor to qualify for the
ballot. If we fail to respond properly, we can be assured that General Shuette and
his vicious minions will continue to kick the ass of marijuana smokers throughout
our state, both sick and well.
This column goes in the May issue, so I’ll have to poke you again in the June
and July issues of MMMReport and then we’ll either be on the ballot or not. Me,
I’ve been waiting and working for the end of marijuana prohibition for almost 50
years, and I just hope it happens before I have to pass beyond this mortal coil.
If not, I’ll still be smoking my joints and dodging the police every day, wherever I
may be.
So please do what you can while the race is on, and that’ll be my word to the
wise for this month. I’ll be on my way back to Amsterdam as you read this,
where the movement is sort of in the other direction—backwards—as the current
government attempts to restructure the 40-year-old coffeeshop culture and turn
Holland’s 680 cannabis cafes into private clubs open only to registered members
who will be Dutch residents to the exclusion of foreign tokers of every kind.
While we’re familiar with registration because the State of Michigan has a
complete list including every medical marijuana patient in the state, the Dutch
smokers—who don’t have to get sick to be able to get their weed over the
counter—take serious offense at this challenge to their cannabis anonymity.
My man Michael Veling, for example, owner of the 420 Café in Amsterdam and
the spokesman for the Cannabis Retailers Association, told the New York Times
that if the law changes, “I’m not going to build a register.”
Thus the Dutch tokers and faithful readers of this column will share my happiness
at the news of the recent collapse of the right-wing Dutch ruling coalition and
the opportunity this presents for the people of the Netherlands to elect a more
progressive government that would, at best, leave well enough alone with
respect to the marijuana issue.
This is good news and should provide a welcome respite in the Dutch War
on Cannabis and Drug Tourism that the current government has been waging
without relent, because reports indicate that virtually all of the programs of the
present regime will be suspended until after the elections in the fall and the
installation in the Parliament of a new governing coalition.
Also, by the time you read this, the Dutch courts should have ruled on the legal
challenge to the proposed private club law brought by the Cannabis Retailers
Association. According to DutchNews.nl, “If the court does not find in the
coffeeshops' favor, Maastricht cafes say they will ignore the new rules, forcing
the government to prosecute them in a test case.”
As Michael Veling explained to the New York Times, “I’m not going to
discriminate on the basis of nationality. I’ve only ever discriminated on the basis
of behavior. I’ll go back to selling alcohol” — illegal in Amsterdam coffeeshops
since 2007 — “and go back to selling bags of weed under the counter.”
Over the past eight years I’ve spent a lot of time in Amsterdam, and when I’m
there I’m well ensconced at the 420 Café, where I serve as Poet In Residence
and get my writing done. God willing, I’ll be sitting there smoking a joint and
sipping an espresso while you’re reading this in Michigan, and I’ll continue to
pray for the legalization of marijuana in America, Holland, and everywhere in the
world.
Before I leave I wanted to say a few words of thanks to Charmie Gholson and her
fellow organizers of the Ann Arbor Hash Bash on April 7th. It was a beautiful day
all afternoon, and when the weather is good the turnout is always impressive and
everybody has a fantastic time both on the Diag and at the nearby Monroe Street
Fair. Free music in the streets, lots of interesting products on hand in the booths,
open smoking and millions of smiles and grins all day. Just like the old days!
I was missing my friend Adam Brook, the longtime organizer of the Hash Bash
who’s now serving time in the Michigan prison system, but I was gratified to find
that he was well remembered onstage at the Diag and his words from prison
were read to the crowd to start off the proceedings. The following procession of
speakers stayed well focused on the issue of legalizing marijuana in the state
and in its various municipalities, and the event served as the kick-off for the
second stage of the current initiative drive.
I’d also like to thank Ms. Ramona Rapinsky and her great staff of volunteers
at the Genesee County Compassion Center (Genesee3C) in Flint, where I
spent the afternoon of April 20 as part of the annual festivities celebrating the
abundance of weed and the fellowship that comes with sharing and comparing
smokes in a warm, friendly, tension-free environment.
There’s a special atmosphere that prevails in my home town of Flint, Michigan,
where I smoked my first joint 50 years ago. The fear and trembling that seems
to surround most medical marijuana meeting places in Michigan—reasonably
enough, given General Shuette’s intention to shut them all down—are absent
from Genesee3C, and a large group of patients and care-givers are able to
gather, relax, medicate and enjoy the company of one another
This is the closest I’ve come in Michigan to enjoying the kind of cultural setting
that prevails in the coffeeshops of Amsterdam, and as I’ve done all my adult life,
I’ll continue to pray that this becomes the norm wherever smokers gather—now
and for all time. Free The Weed!
—Portland, Oregon
April 25, 2012
© 2012 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
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