Ann Arbor, Michigan

I've lived here my whole life and was well acquainted with the accepting marijuana culture that the city harbors. I didn't fully appreciate it until I ran into the Ann Arbor Police Department awhile back.

One night, on the way back home riding with a friend from smoking a lot of regular weed with a few other friends, he and I decided to hit the pipe while driving. Now, we've done this before without a hitch, even though it's not entirely safe. As we ride and smoke at the same time, the driver, trying to take a hit from the bowl, tells me to grab the wheel as we're driving down this practically deserted street around 1:40 AM. Now me, I can't drive, I'm high, and I'm being told just to take the wheel and keep the car straight from the passenger seat. All appears well until about a minute later, when a police car pulls out in front of us from a neighborhood and another behind us.

The car wasn't being baked but had blatant smells of marijuana coming from the car (since then, I've learned the benefits of Lysol germ killing and deodorizing spray which eliminates the odor now). I ask him where the weed is at, but he's high and scared and isn't telling me shit, so I can't conceal it. The cop comes up and talks to my friend, telling him that they clocked him for swerving a little while back and they were following him. He asks if we're smoking cigars or anything, knowing that it's weed he smells. My friend the driver is on probation and is paranoid as a bitch right now, and starts lying out of his ass, saying we weren't smoking weed, etc.

The police gave him a sobriety test since they were concerned about a possible drunk driver. He passed that and the tests for testing possible high people. Before the police approached the car, I made my best attempt to hide the pipe down my shorts, hoping that it could magically slip under my dick or on the side of my nut sack and not fall out of the bottom of my shorts. But it did, and when I stepped out of the car, the pipe fell out of the bottom of my shorts, shattering, and the cop tells me to just leave it alone and walk up on the curb.

Mind you, I'm high as fuck and frustrated with the driver lying to the police, possibly making the situation bad for me. The cop asks us if there's any weed in the car, and the driver doesn't say shit. At this point, I decide to speak up, and say that I have some weed in the front of the car by the cup holder. It wasn't my weed, but my friend was on probation and would have likely gone to jail for driving under the influence. This particular night was his birthday also, and a friend of ours gave him a 1/5th of Bacardi which he had in the trunk, but neglected to tell the cops about when they asked if anything else was in the car.

So examine the scenario: we're high as fuck, caught by the Ann Arbor police on the road, under 21 with a fifth in the trunk, under a quarter of weed in the car, broken pipe on the ground, and the driver is already on probation.

I remembered faintly the shit I was told about Ann Arbor concerning local marijuana laws. At the yearly Hash Bash, stoners are told that if they're going to smoke weed, don't do it on campus (University of Michigan) because the local marijuana laws don't apply there since it's federal. We got pulled over on city grounds, so in the back of my mind this whole time I had a reassuring feeling that I wasn't going to get in trouble for anything.

The Ann Arbor local marijuana laws basically make it a civil infraction for possession of marijuana. So what happened to me?

I took the rap for the bud that wasn't even mine to save my friend's ass. The police told me that all the shit that they got from the car (broken pipe, weed, etc.) will be destroyed. I was issued a civil infraction, a ticket, for $50, citing "Possession of MJ" as the violation.

The police knew my friend was high but let him slide from serious charges, but because they can't let him drive away knowing that he's high, they had to impound his car. He got a MIP for the fifth and the cops gave us rides home.

After this incident I truly appreciated my city. A $50 ticker for possession of marijuana? ($25 usually but $50 since it occurred in traffic) Mind you, the amount was just a little under a quarter (which was also a fat sack) and the cops didn't even weigh it. Larger quantities would bring more serious charges, but the laws concerning minor possession of marijuana in my town are great and I was happy after this incident.

I read similar stories concerning minor possession like this, and just for weed people get serious charges against them. But I got off with the most "inexpensive ticket" the city gives out according to the lady at the court house. For taking the rap for my friend, I made him pay off the $50 for the ticket and all was good after that.

The lessons learned from this:

Ann Arbor local marijuana laws are the shit
Never drive and smoke at the same time on major roads
Don't lie to the cops, but don't spill all the beans

:baggy: