From Wikipedia
Marijuana ordinance of 1972
Through the 1960s and early 1970s, as
Ann Arbor played host to a number of radical organizations – including formative meetings of
Students for a Democratic Society, the establishment of the
White Panther Party, and the local
Human Rights Party – public opinion in the city moved steadily to the left on the criminalization of marijuana possession. The
Michigan Daily, the main student newspaper at the
University of Michigan, gained national press coverage by urging the legalization of marijuana as early as 1967.
[1] However, two more specific factors pushed the city towards the eventual adoption of
marijuana enforcement provisions that proved to be among the most liberal in the country.
The first factor was local reaction to the highly punitive state penalties, which provided for a year's imprisonment for possession of two ounces (57 g) or less, four year's imprisonment for the sale of marijuana, and harsher penalties for repeat offenses. These unusually strict penalties received national attention when poet and activist
John Sinclair was sentenced to ten years in prison for possession of two joints, a sentence that sparked the landmark
John Sinclair Freedom Rally at Ann Arbor's
Crisler Arena in December 1971. The event brought together a who's-who of left-wing luminaries, including pop musicians
John Lennon,
Stevie Wonder, and
Bob Seger, jazz artists
Archie Shepp and
Roswell Rudd, and speakers
Allen Ginsberg,
Rennie Davis,
Jerry Rubin, and
Bobby Seale.
[2] Three days after the rally, Sinclair was released from prison after the
Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the state's marijuana statutes were unconstitutional.
The second factor was the April 1972 election to Ann Arbor city council of two candidates from the
Human Rights Party (HRP), an organization that promoted local progressive and radical causes.
[3] In September 1972, several months after they took their seats on council, the HRP's two council members spearheaded a bill that would reduce city penalties for possession of less than two ounces of marijuana to a
$5 civil-infraction ticket. (The city penalty had previously been identical to the state penalty.) City police would then charge violators under the city ordinance rather than the state statute. The HRP representatives, by garnering the support of
Democratic council members, quickly managed to pass the ordinance over the objections of council
Republicans. In supporting the new ordinance, Democratic mayor
Robert J. Harris told the
Washington Post, "In this town, it was the only way to go. ... We've made a great effort to get a decent relationship between the kids and the cops. Now at least we'll get the police out of the marijuana business."
[4]
Outside observers characterized the ordinance as the most lenient in the country. In press interviews, the city attorney described the penalty as "sort of like a parking ticket," explaining that violators could mail the ticket, with a guilty plea and the fine, back to city hall in order to dispose of the charge.
[5] City police and prosecutors agreed to use the $5 city ordinance, rather than the still-applicable state laws, as the tool for enforcement against violators. The city police chief, however, promised to continue to pursue large-scale drug dealers aggressively, using the harsher state laws against this class of violator.
[5]
Shortly after the measure's adoption, the
New York Times reported: "Under the trees on the University of Michigan campus, in the back rows of movie theaters – even, it is said, in the public gallery of the City Council chamber itself – young people are increasingly lighting up marijuana in public these days." However, both police and independent academic observers asserted in national media articles that the amount of
marijuana smoked in the city had not increased; the locations had merely switched to include more public spaces.
[5]
