DETROIT — Poet, writer, performer, activist and longtime Metro Times contributor John Sinclair will co-author a new column about medical marijuana and broader pot issues in Metro Times beginning Wednesday, Sept. 29. Former MT editor and current columnist Larry Gabriel — while continuing his popular “Stir It Up” column — will alternate with Sinclair in the new “Higher Ground” column to provide insight into the medical marijuana community and related issues — locally, nationally and abroad.
“Some 14 states, including Michigan and the District of Columbia, have legalized use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Voters in California go to the polls in a few weeks to decide on full-fledged legalization of marijuana for adults over age 21. We appear to be on the cusp of a broad societal shift that’s worthy of the kind of concerted insight, perspective and reporting that
John and Larry can bring,” said Metro Times Editor W. Kim Heron.
Topics covered will range from culture to legality issues, from law enforcement to the politics of
pot. The column will look at the people involved, the activists, the patients, the entrepreneurs, the
critics and more. Look for Sinclair to occasionally write about his own history and life as it
relates to marijuana.
John Sinclair’s storied career includes managing the MC5, heading the White Panther (later Rainbow People’s) Party and serving two years in Michigan prisons before his case led the Michigan Supreme Court to toss out the state’s then-current marijuana law as unconstitutional in
1971. He has also been a radio host (including at Detroit’s WDET-FM), a widely published author (from Down Beat magazine to such books as Guitar Army) and a performer-poet with numerous records to his credit. Although his ties to Detroit have remained strong, and his visits frequent, he moved to New Orleans in 1991 and, in 2003, to the Netherlands, where he now resides. His advocacy on behalf of legalized marijuana has been a consistent thread through his career as — in the words of the Boston Phoenix — a “patriarch of hipster culture.”
Larry Gabriel has held a number of positions at Metro Times over a 25-year period, including editor from 1997 to 2001, and he currently writes the bi-weekly “Stir It Up” column. He’s also been an editor and features writer for the Detroit Free Press and editor of the UAW’s Solidarity magazine. Also a published and active poet and musician, he is the author of Daddy Plays Old-
Time New Orleans Jazz, a memoir and history of his multi-generational musical family.
Metro Times is Detroit’s award-winning weekly publication founded in 1980. Metro Times is the largest weekly publication in Michigan and distributes 80,000 copies each week to metro Detroit
and Ann Arbor.
The medical marijuana column will also be available online, and both writers will occasionally blog for metrotimes.com. For more information, please contact Maria Stella Jewett at 313-202-8061 or by e-mail at mjewett@metrotimes.com.
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