Hash Bash 2011..what happened?

Posted: Apr 3, 2011 at 10:00 PM [Apr 3, 2011]

Having missed Hash Bash last year I was extremely ecstatic to finally be able to make it this year. As I arrived to the corner of Monroe and Tappan, however, that quickly changed. 

Let me start by saying that I am from Ann Arbor, born and raised. Some may call us a town of “hippies”, and indeed we are. We are a community that loves to take care of the environment and immerse ourselves in nature. We have love, or at the very least a mutual respect, for our fellow man and treat people as such. Growing up in this kind of environment, I feel, has allowed me to understand the full potential of the marijuana plant as both a resource and a drug; and when using it as a drug, simply put, it is for freeing your mind, feeding your head, and opening your heart.

I was deeply shocked, disturbed, then saddened when I witnessed the crowd at this year’s Hash Bash. Many people were there not to celebrate the potential of marijuana, but instead to celebrate the temporary legality of getting high; to get “F-ed up” for the sake of getting F-ed up. There were numerous high schoolers, no doubt following the music of performers like Ke$ha, running “this town just like a club.” I also witnessed parents that had brought their infants! Children do not belong at anything drug related, especially those that are so young they can’t voice anything let alone their opinion. I strongly suggest that next year’s Hash Bash have an age limit of 18-years or older. Though I am sure police enforcement of this will be nearly impossible for many reasons, I would still strongly support any initiative made toward this effort.

In previous years, solicitors either had a booth or went around the crowd sharing their message and only giving flyers to those who truly wanted them. This year, there were many people blindly handing out flyers, which, when done this way, leaves more flyers on the ground rather than in people’s pockets. I was upset by the amount of liter I could see in the thick crowd, and I cringe when thinking of what the area probably looked like when it was all over.

I can’t help but feel like this year the name of Hash Bash was in many ways shamed, perhaps because its true message was unknown to the crowd. Behavior like this is what continues to set back the marijuana movement, or any Sensible Drug Policy movement for that matter.

I would just like readers to know that I am not writing this to be rude or hateful, or to complain or gossip; I say these things because I care and I want to see a better future for Hash Bash, Ann Arbor, and the world.