As a sophomore, I missed out on witnessing last year’s Hash Bash due to the pandemic. With this in mind, I didn’t exactly know what to expect when walking through Hash Bash for the first time. While the entire event was, to put it a certain way, elevating, I truly did not expect the sheer amount of dogs in the crowd. It seemed like every breed of dog was there to represent themselves at an event that seemingly had so little to do with them. The Pitbulls alongside the sellers made sense; the Yorkies and Poodles, a little less so. I found this phenomenon so interesting that I was determined to document it.

The more you think about it, the more the connection between stoners and dogs makes some sense: weed can make you feel happier, calmer and more interested in the smallest details in front of you than the big-picture, human-related problems of the world. Through their experiences, perhaps stoners can relate to dogs a bit more. Dogs are generally friendly, never judgmental and always entertaining to have around if you give them the love and care they deserve. Marijuana usage often stimulates creativity and a sense of connection to those around you too — so maybe, just maybe, getting high can make you feel just a little bit closer to man’s best friend.

Staff Photographer Jarett Orr can be reached at jaretto@umich.edu.