Sept. 29, 2010 -- AMSTERDAM (Detroit Metro Times) -- Highest greetings from Amsterdam. My name is John Sinclair and I've been a marijuana legalization activist ever since I founded Detroit LEMAR (LEgalize MARijuana) in January 1965, following the receipt of a LEMAR flyer sent from New York City by poets Allen Ginsberg and Edward Sanders, the progenitors of this movement.
Between 1964 and 1968, I was harassed by the Detroit Narcotics Squad for smoking, dispensing and advocating marijuana use. I served six months in the Detroit House of Correction in 1966 for possession of a half-ounce of weed, and I served 29 months of a 9-1/2-to-10-year sentence for possession of two joints of marijuana -- a crime then defined as a Violation of State Narcotics Laws (VSNL) -- between July 1969 and December 1971.
During this time I was held without appeal bond in maximum-security prisons in Jackson and Marquette while my legal appeal wound its way through the Michigan court system. In March 1972, the Michigan Supreme Court decided that marijuana was not a narcotic. My conviction was reversed and the marijuana laws were declared unconstitutional.
Thus there were no marijuana laws in Michigan for three weeks until the current state legislation punishing marijuana users with a year in prison for possession went into effect. This dreadful new law was commemorated by the first Hash Bash gathering on the Diag at the University of Michigan on April 1, 1972.
