Tune at 1:00am EST and NOW 9:00am to www.tapdetroit.com for Detroit Life with John Sinclair a Detroit Poet who after a series of convictions for possession of ma*****na, Sinclair was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1969 after giving two joints of ma*****na to an undercover narcotics officer. This sentence inspired Abbie Hoffman to jump on the stage during The Who‘s performance at Woodstock to
protest. The event brought together a who’s who of left-wing luminaries, including pop musicians John Lennon (who recorded the song, “John Sinclair” on his Some Time in New York City album), Yoko Ono, David Peel, Stevie Wonder, Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger, jazz artists Archie Shepp and Roswell Rudd, and speakers Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman,Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale. Three days after the rally, Sinclair was released from prison when the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the state’s ma*****na statutes were unconstitutional. These events inspired the creation of Ann Arbor’s annual pro-legalization Hash Bash rally, which continues to be held as of 2011, and contributed to the drive for decriminalization of ma*****na under the Ann Arbor city charter (see Cannabis laws in Ann Arbor, Michigan). In 1972, Leonard Weinglass took on the defense of John Sinclair in Detroit, Michigan. The case became United States v. U.S. District Court, 407 U.S. 297 (1972) on appeal to the United States Supreme Court a landmark decision prohibiting the government’s use of electronic survelliance without a warrant.
