Thousands of Ann Arbor residents and visitors crowded the University of Michigan Diag on Saturday for the town’s 53rd annual Hash Bash. The festival, which advocates for federal legalization and decriminalization of marijuana, featured booths and tables selling various marijuana products and paraphernalia on the Diag, as well as an array of food trucks lining Tappan Street.
The first Saturday in April has drawn countless University of Michigan students, Ann Arbor community members and marijuana enthusiasts from across the country to campus to celebrate Hash Bash since 1972. The festival featured speakers on the front steps of the Hatcher Graduate Library including state Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, and Josey Scoggin, director for the Great Lakes Expungement Network.
While the original aim of Hash Bash was to advocate for the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana, marijuana is increasingly being decriminalized today. The 53rd annual Hash Bash focused on advocating for those who have marijuana possession-related charges on record.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily at the event, Irwin spoke about the history of marijuana advocacy in Ann Arbor and at the University.
“Ann Arbor has been the epicenter of cannabis reform activism nationally, ever since the first Hash Bash over 40 years ago,” Irwin said. “Michigan is doing it better than any other state in terms of how the industry has developed …”
Michigan resident Becky Walters is a volunteer for Sons and Daughters United, a nonprofit organization that supports families affected by the criminal legal system. Walters told The Daily that she believes the organization’s work is important to advocate for people who have marijuana possession-related charges on their record and noted that smoking marijuana is not legal throughout the country despite the fact that it is increasingly being decriminalized.
“It’s not legal everywhere though, and people are still in prison for it so (the organization) raises money to pay for peoples’ expungements, especially if it’s a cannabis one,” Walters said.
In an interview with The Daily, LSA sophomore Ethan Goldiez, member of the Student Association for Psychedelic Studies, a sponsor of this year’s event, said it is important to continue to celebrate Hash Bash in the future.
“To be the student organization that’s helping to keep this tradition going is just special to us,” Goldiez said. “Clearly, there’s a lot of people in the community that care about this kind of event, so to keep that going is important to us.”
Daily News Contributor Mary Katharine Acho-Tartoni can be reached at mkatart@umich.edu.