Commemorating John Sinclair
Michigan’s champion of legal marijuana, counterculture hero, poet and radio maker, John Sinclair died Tuesday morning at age 82.
Sinclair, renowned for managing the Detroit proto-punk band MC5 and founding the White Panther Party during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, played a pivotal role in American counterculture. He endured government persecution for his marijuana advocacy, serving a 10-year prison sentence for passing two joints to an undercover officer in 1969.
However, his cause gained momentum when John Lennon performed at the John Sinclair Freedom Rally in 1971. This catalyzed the Michigan Supreme Court’s ruling against the state’s marijuana laws, a landmark victory for cannabis reform. Sinclair’s influence sparked Ann Arbor’s annual Hash Bash smoke fest in the 1970s and contributed to the legalization of cannabis in Michigan. His legacy continues to shape marijuana policy, leaving an indelible mark on the movement.
As a tribute to his impact, the HIGH TIMES honored Sinclair at the Amsterdam Cannabis Cup, on December 6, 2011, as the fourth recipient of the Lester Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award.
| It’s All Good For Michael Veling & the 420 Café [Hey William! Lemme have one of them reefers. Thanks, Greg.] When you go to the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam They got people coming there from all over the world bringing the finest marijuana grown by the seed companies of Holland for us to smoke & get high & enjoy the wonderful atmosphere of a society where people just don’t care if you wanna get high– Hey, that’s just fine, c’mon over here to the coffeeshop & order whatever kind of weed or hash you might wanna smoke ‘cuz it’s all good– it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good And by the end of the week they gonna pick the finest marijuana that’s been submitted for the testing of the exalted panel of judges here at the Cannabis Cup & guess what? While we’re smoking all those different kinds of weed & trying to figure out which one is gonna win the Cup, every different brand we try is gonna be the bomb ‘cuz it’s all good– it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good But when we get back to the United States it ain’t gonna be nothing like this. In the United States it ain’t nothing nice ‘cuz they got a war on people like us, they call it the war on drugs but they don’t give a fuck about drugs, ‘cuz if you got a prescription you can get as loaded as any human bring has ever been on the planet Earth– They just don’t like us getting high on marijuana or cocaine or whatever we might want to use to effect a certain change in our consciousness– Now, I like to get high. I’m not going to make any bones about it. I like to get high, & you know, whatever I like to get high on, I believe I have a right to do this– And you too! And everybody in our society. Because people want drugs. They want to get high. People have been getting high ever since there’s been people. They’ve been fucking, they’ve been getting high & they’ve been buying some pussy, you know. These things have been going on, & they will continue to go on. So to keep us from getting high like we are today at the Cannabis Cup They got police– they got so many police you couldn’t even believe it– they got electronical equipment, they got helicopters, they got exotic chemicals killing the shit off in the fields, they got people going out all over South America & Asia & all over the world trying to keep this shit from getting to the United States & when it finally does get here, you got to pay so much money for it that it’s about to drive you crazy– & that’s another thing: they ain’t got nothing for people like us in terms of money–if you’re an artist or a poet or an authentical musician they ain’t got a motherfucking thing for you except the war on drugs & a whole bunch of police, undercover agents, narco terrorists, rat bastards & snitches, they got motherfuckers coming in through your front window with guns in their hands– & ain’t none of that shit good, That’s no good & they wrong for that, Because the war on drugs is about building a police state. The war on drugs is about building prisons & filling them up with more & more people like us & employing more guards, employing more cops, more special agents, more prosecutors, more judges, more wardens, more jailers, more parole officers, more assholes testing you for drugs so you can get some kind of job or keep from getting evicted– the worst elements of our society. And not just that, but also the way they’ve inflated the cost of things– what you could buy for 10 dollars in 1973, now you’ve gotta pay a hundred dollars– you gotta hustle 10 times as hard today than you did 25 years ago. You’re living by your wits & you’re trying to figure out how to get some money without having a job, but everything costs 10 times as much– That’s severe. And that’s one more reason why we wanna have some drugs– we’re out here living by our wits, & our heads are sore. We wanna get home at night & put something in our heads, or get up in the morning & put something in our heads. We don’t know what we’re gonna have to face out here in these streets that day, & we need a little something to help us get straight– like everybody here at the Cannabis Cup, smoking that reefer & having a good time– ‘cuz it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good So we gonna forget about America & enjoy ourselves here in Amsterdam at the Cannabis Cup all week long & on Thanksgiving Day when they announce who grew the best pot for us to smoke & get high on, let’s give thanks for every strain of weed that makes its way here to us & to all the growers of marijuana all over the world & our intrepid comrades who risk life & limb to supply us with the substances we require & all the warriors doing time in the vast penitentiaries of America as prisoners of the War on Drugs– We salute you all & thank you once again for all the good you have done– because it’s all good, that’s right, it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good it’s all good IT’S ALL GOOD New Orleans November 11-15, 1998/ Amsterdam November 2002/ New Orleans January 13, 2006 with additional edits & emendations 11-15-98] |
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