Politicians join call for marijuana reform at 42nd annual Hash Bash in Ann Arbor

Related: Images from Ann Arbor's 42nd annual Hash Bash

Surrounded by thousands of cheering supporters and clouds of smoke at Saturday's Hash Bash, state Rep. Jeff Irwin pledged to fight for the legalization of marijuana in Michigan.

Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, said he's still planning to introduce a bill to decriminalize cannabis in the state, which he called a first step toward more sensible drug policy.

His bill would follow Ann Arbor's model and make it a civil infraction — instead of a crime — to possess an ounce or less for personal use.

"Make sure you pick up the phone, write an email, and encourage your friends to do the same," Irwin said, calling on the ralliers to get active and reach out to lawmakers.

Irwin pointed to the successful 2012 campaign to legalize marijuana in Colorado and said he wants to see Michigan follow Colorado's lead to end the war on marijuana.

Police estimated about 3,000 people attended the rally on the University of Michigan Diag, which they said was a little smaller than it's been the last couple of years.

Just as many or more were out at the festivities surrounding the Monroe Street Fair afterward near the law quad area, said Diane Brown, spokeswoman for the U-M Department of Public Safety.

Brown said campus police made 16 marijuana arrests and issued five alcohol possession citations, one MIP, and two trespassing citations. She said a few people were cited for selling items they shouldn't have, such as bumper stickers.

Police reported no major incidents, though Brown said five people had to be taken away by ambulance for seizures most likely as a result of synthetic marijuana.

The 90-minute rally at the 42nd annual Hash Bash in Ann Arbor featured a long list of speakers who repeated calls for marijuana reform.

Hash Bash organizer and Michigan Moms United founder Charmie Gholson called for an end to what she described as a "ridiculous ongoing civil war against marijuana."

"The feds still hate you and want you in prison, my friends," she told the crowd. "They're hunting us and putting us in cages."

Speakers said they continue to face attacks on their freedom, but they're hopeful they'll continue to make progress in getting lawmakers to listen to them.

They said there's never been a more exciting time for marijuana reform and they're slowly but surely winning the fight, city by city and state by state.

"This is a whole new era of marijuana. We're starting to be taken seriously," said Mark Passerini, a University of Michigan graduate and co-founder of the OM of Medicine marijuana dispensary on Main Street in Ann Arbor.

Passerini said he's seen marijuana help people with everything from stress relief to PTSD, muscle spasms, joint pain and arthritis.

"We love cannabis for all these reasons," he said, drawing applause from the crowd.

Channeling John F. Kennedy's famous 1961 inaugural address, Passerini issued a call to action: "Ask not what marijuana can do for you — ask what you can do for the marijuana movement."

Marijuana reform activist Tim Beck, described by some as the "godfather" of the marijuana movement in Michigan, highlighted the results of a new Pew Research Center survey that shows 52 percent of Americans say the use of marijuana should be made legal.

Beck said those in the minority who want to keep hassling people for using marijuana "don't get the picture" and need to get a life.

"It helps me physically feel better every day of my life," Chuck Ream, president of the Arborside medical marijuana dispensary in Ann Arbor, said of what cannabis has done for him.

Gholson said the war on marijuana is destroying families. She said she's tired of police "tasing kids for pot" and leaving them with arrest records that create barriers to education, employment and housing.

She said she's building a case for a lawsuit against police brutality and working with Irwin on an "asset forfeiture bill" so police can't seize people's assets before getting a conviction.

"I am perfectly capable of making my own health care choices," Gholson said, adding cannabis helps her deal with chronic pain, inflammation and even PMS.

"It does not make me a pharmaceutical drugged-out zombie," she said.

The mostly male crowd included a mix of young and old, many of whom lit up a joint during the rally, which spilled over into the Monroe Street Fair afterward. Some said they were there for the first time. Others said they've been coming to the annual event since the 1970s.

U-M graduate and Flint native Dan Skye, editorial director for High Times magazine, told the crowd the last Hash Bash he attended was in 1975.

He said he came over to the Diag that day, smoked a joint, didn't think he got high, but later realized he was high while he was in a conference with his student advisor.

Skye said he'll probably never see marijuana completely legalized in the United States during his lifetime, but he issued a call to the next generation of activists to carry the torch.

"This is a dangerous plant?" he asked. "I mean, outlaw poison ivy first."

Matt Abel, a Detroit-based cannabis lawyer, urged ralliers to call state lawmakers to push for hearings on House Bill 4271.

State Rep. Mike Callton, R-Nashville, introduced the bill in February to let local communities decide whether to allow medical marijuana dispensaries after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that dispensaries handling patient-to-patient sales are not protected under state law.

The bill has 16 co-sponsors, a mix of Republicans and Democrats, including Irwin, but hasn't moved forward in the Judiciary Committee.

Jamie Lowell, co-founder of 3rd Coast Compassion Center in Ypsilanti, said he's been told by those working directly on it that the bill is expected to get a committee hearing soon.

"It's time to change the laws. Marijuana is not wrong," Abel said.

City Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward, spoke just before Irwin. She talked about efforts by her and her colleagues on the City Council to craft regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries in Ann Arbor in response to what she called a badly written state law.

"This was not my issue," Briere stressed, but she said it was a problem that needed to be fixed. "If we could just get the people in Lansing to listen, we'd be so much farther ahead."

Briere said the people of Michigan, including marijuana users, deserve to have laws that they can obey and that respect their individual rights. She said it's not to anyone's advantage to be "cluttering up jails" with marijuana users when there are more serous crimes to worry about.

"We're all hung up because the state Legislature hasn't passed laws that make dispensaries legal," she said, urging ralliers to convey the "human need" to their representatives.

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's email newsletters.