ANN ARBOR, MI — “They can’t stop Entheofest,” state Sen. Jeff Irwin declared in a speech on the University of Michigan Diag on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 21.
“The university can’t stop Entheofest, the cops can’t stop Entheofest,” the Ann Arbor Democrat said. “This event is going to continue to go on until we win freedom for ourselves and for our neighbors who want access to plant medicines.”
Irwin and several others addressed a crowd of about 100 people who gathered in the rain for the fifth-annual Ann Arbor celebration of psychedelic plants and shrooms.
The Student Association for Psychedelic Studies was granted a previously denied permit to host the event on campus after winning a court battle against the university on Thursday.
Despite Sunday’s damp conditions, which some speakers noted was good mushroom-growing weather, and having to finalize plans on short notice, organizers said they were happy to keep Entheofest going after UM’s attempt to stop it.
“It’s definitely a different event this year than it has been in the past,” said Emily Berriman, the student group president. “We weren’t able to plan nearly to the extent that we usually can. We have less tables, less sponsors.”
They also had to cancel the Airbnb and flight for neurobiologist William Leonard Pickard, who would have been the keynote speaker. They were dealt another blow when the university told them they couldn’t have musician Laith Al-Saadi perform because it was too short notice, organizers said.
All that aside, Entheofest prevailed, Berriman said, saying she appreciated so many people still came.
“Really it is about the community … and coming together to show a care and a passion for these medicines,” she said. “So, while it’s a different event, it’s still strong … and we’re going to come back bigger and better next year.”
University officials and campus police stood watch Sunday, looking out for anyone bringing in or selling illegal substances, which organizers made clear they also didn’t want.
Officers asked some attendees to refrain from smoking marijuana joints, giving warnings about it, and they stopped some people and searched through their personal belongings, including a family with two young children pulling a wagon through the Diag. The family was free to go after police found nothing illegal.
UM Police Lt. Kevin Crowley said to his knowledge there were no issues or arrests.
Some attendees said they thought campus police were being unreasonable.
“I think they’re being a little excessive,” said Ryan Zink, who drove in from the Brighton area with his friend Daniel Ealovega and was surprised by the heightened enforcement.
Smoking joints seemed to be condoned by campus police during last year’s Entheofest, Ealovega said after he and Zink got a warning from officers about it on Sunday.
“It would have been nice to know ahead of time,” he said.
Irwin called out campus police in his speech, arguing searching Entheofest attendees was warrantless and illegal.
“There are people on the way in here who had their bags opened, who had their objects rifled through,” he said.
Campus police didn’t offer a response.
Entheofest co-organizer Jim Salame expressed appreciation for officers helping keep the event free of illegal activity, making it clear people who want to make money selling shrooms and other products at Entheofest aren’t welcome there.
“I’m so happy that people are not selling anything right now,” Salame said during the event, noting the absence of unauthorized vendors who’ve shown up in years past.
The event is focused on advocacy and education around psilocybin mushrooms and other natural substances that have been decriminalized in Ann Arbor since September 2020 but are still illegal under state and federal law. That includes ayahuasca, ibogaine, mescaline, peyote and other plant-based compounds with hallucinogenic properties.
Various speakers vented frustrations about the university’s attempt to shut down Entheofest, noting it took over a month of fighting through appeal and litigation to get a permit.
“The university … did this to stall the whole process, so we couldn’t really rally,” Salame said.
Hash Bash organizer Jamie Lowell raised concerns there could be similar obstacles with the Hash Bash marijuana rally on the Diag next April, telling supporters to be ready.
“Each one of you here today are pioneers and champions in the nationwide movement to decriminalize nature,” former City Council Member Anne Bannister told the crowd, discussing the spiritual and medical potential of “sacred plants.”
“Psychedelics have been used to help people with chronic pain, manage debilitating mental health issues and help people become more connected to Mother Nature and themselves,” said UM student Shravya Ghantasala, whose group the Lookout Project had a table set up at Entheofest.
“Psychedelics have been used in society for thousands of years, primarily in spiritual and healing rituals by indigenous cultures, yet America has to strip yet another important element of communities that were here before us,” she said.
Chuck Ream, a longtime advocate of psychedelics, said it seemed UM tried to stop Entheofest “to show obedience to the depraved, ugly, fascist pig of a president that we have,” referring to President Donald Trump.
UM officials have not responded to requests for comment on the matter, but in its denial of a permit it cited concerns the event promotes illegal substances, saying the university has a responsibility to uphold state and federal law on campus. It also cited past concerns with Hash Bash and Entheofest.
Berriman, a social work graduate student, said she’s interning at an Ann Arbor medical clinic where she does psychedelic-assisted therapy for people with mental health issues and chronic pain using ketamine, a synthetic compound that’s legal.
People come to the clinic after spending years and thousands of dollars trying different pharmaceutical drugs and often they see benefit in the psychedelic-assisted therapy, she said.
“I really believe in the healing power of psychedelics, and they’re not for everyone,” she said, saying not everyone meets God after trying them. “It’s powerful and it’s not a panacea.”
Users of psychedelics can come out of a trip enlightened and reborn, Ream said.
“You deeply understand that the only really important thing is love,” he said, drawing cheers. “We should keep on trying to get psychedelics approved through the proper government channels.”
Irwin argued too much taxpayer money is wasted trying to ruin the lives of people who want to use psychedelics.
“That’s why I’ve introduced legislation for years and years to decriminalize the use of plant-based medicine here in Michigan,” he said. “I have introduced legislation time and time again to say that if people want access to psilocybin, or people want access to peyote, or people want access to some of these substances, they should be able to do that.”
They’re not harmful substances, they have tremendous promise to help people and they should be legal, he said.
As attendees huddled under umbrellas, Salame said he didn’t mind that it rained on Sunday’s event.
“I mean, the mushrooms love it. You know, they’re growing right now,” he said.
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