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Drug War Heats Up In A2

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Parent Issue
Month
October
Year
1989
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
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Agenda Publications
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Drug War Heats Up in A2

by David Nesle

ANN ARBOR- Calling it an embarrassment to the city, Mayor Jerry Jernigan, last month revealed plans to revise the city's $5 pot law. The proposed revision of the current law would change possession of small amounts of marijuana to a civil, rather than criminal infraction, but would raise the fine to $25 for the first offense, $50 for a second and $100 for a third (the same state fine structure as for possession of alcohol by a minor). City Council Republicans expect to have the revision on the ballot for the April 1990 city elections.

In spite of attendance on the U-M diag by 2,000-5,000 people at the past two Ann Arbor Hash Bashes, The Ann Arbor News has ignored any voice for liberalized marijuana laws in their aggressive anti-pot campaign in recent months. However, The News ran several anti-pot articles with headlines such as "Marijuana: Getting Tough" and "Backlash builds against liberal pot laws."

The local chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which sponsored the Hash Bash in 1988 and 1989, is an educational and political group fighting marijuana prohibition and the criminalization of 26 million pot-smoking, but otherwise law-abiding citizens.

U-M, for its part, has been attempting to block NORML from organizing Hash Bashes. For instance, Henry Johnson, U-M Vice President for Student Services, vowed that NORML will not be given permission to use the diag for the 1990 Hash Bash. Johnson and other U-M officials blame the Bash for two nights of drunken rioting after Michigan's victories in the NCAA basketball tournament on April 1 and 3 (The Ann Arbor News, 4/7/89). Attempting to deflect blame from the University and area bars (and the city's $14,000 bill for damages in the South University area) U-M President James Duderstadt blamed the $5 pot law, the Hash Bash and concurrent Grateful Dead Concerts for the damages. In response the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA), U-M's student government, passed an April 18 resolution deploring the administration's attempts to "scapegoat NORML for the events following the NCAA basketball games."

On September 5, after President Bush's most recent drug war plans were revealed, NORML organized a nighttime picket at the Federal Building in Ann Arbor, in conjunction with similar pickets around the nation.

Activities underway among forces for liberalized marijuana laws will include: Last Thursday of the month NORML meetings at Dominick's, 812 Monroe at 8 pm, and telecasts of previous Hash Bashes on Ann Arbor Cable Community Access TV . Clandestine marijuana promoters promise a "Joints for Jerry" campaign, targeting Mayor Jernigan for mailings of marijuana cigarettes. Write NORML at P. O. Box 6014, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 or call 453-8840.

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