Hash Bash

Hash Bash is an annual cannabis event held on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, featuring a series of speeches and live performances focus on the goal of legalizing marijuana at the federal, state, and local levels in the United States.

The first Hash Bash took place on April 1, 1972, as a reaction to the Michigan Supreme Court's ruling on March 9, 1972, which deemed unconstitutional the law that had been used to convict cultural activist John Sinclair for possessing two marijuana joints.

[2] The second annual Hash Bash, in 1973, attracted approximately 3,000 participants, including state representative Perry Bullard, a proponent of marijuana legalization.

[5] The campus falls under state, not city jurisdiction but "for decades, police had in the past exercised discretion and a general tolerance for public marijuana use at the annual Hash Bash.

Protesters are commonly seen as consuming cannabis as a form of civil disobedience, anticipating minimal law enforcement intervention,[6] which was largely the case until the seventh annual event in 1978, when local authorities began arresting participants suspected of using illegal substances.