Cannabis laws in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Since the 1970s, the college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan has enacted some of the most lenient laws on marijuana possession in the United States. These include measures approved in a 1972 city-council ordinance, a 1974 voter referendum making possession of small amounts of the substance merely a civil infraction subject to a small fine, and a 2004 referendum on the use of medical marijuana. Since state law takes precedence over municipal law, the far-stricter state marijuana laws are still enforced on University of Michigan property.

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. 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 state penalties, which provided for a year's imprisonment for possession of two ounces (57 g) or less, four years' imprisonment for the sale of marijuana, and harsher penalties for repeat offenses. These 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. Three days after the rally, Sinclair was released from prison after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the state's marijuana statutes were unconstitutional.

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