Politics
Michigan Court Orders University To Allow Psychedelics Festival, Ruling That Permit Denial Was Unconstitutional
A Michigan court is upholding the constitutional right of an advocacy group to hold an event celebrating psychedelics in a common space at the University of Michigan this weekend.
The Student Association for Psychedelic Studies (SAPS) requested a permit to hold this Sunday’s Entheofest 2025 event on the campus “Diag” earlier this year, but the university denied it last month, arguing that the celebration promotes illicit drugs and that it would pose a “safety risk” for attendees.
A Michigan Court of Claims judge on Thursday rejected that justification for the permit denial, and it approved SAPS’s request for a preliminary injunction against the university on the grounds that prohibiting the event constituted a violation of the U.S. Constitution protecting free speech.
“The First Amendment is not without irony. Plaintiffs want to celebrate the local decriminalization of psilocybin on the iconic Diag of the University of Michigan, where thousands of speakers have spoken their words to hundreds of thousands of willing (if not always sympathetic) listeners,” Chief Judge Brock Swartzle said in an opinion. “But it is this very decriminalization at the local level that has purportedly neutered the University’s ability to keep the peace, imperiling the parties’ collective ability to ensure a safe and lawful space for free speech.”
“Although sympathetic to the University’s position, the Court concludes that denying use of the Diag for ‘Entheofest 2025’ is not reasonable in light of the purposes of that limited public forum,” he said, adding that the university’s attempt to prevent the event because of security issues experienced at a separate rally centers around cannabis reform and culture are unfounded.
“While both events celebrate the use and cultivation of unlawful substances, the scale of each event is dramatically different, at least 10:1 when comparing Hash Bash to Entheofest,” the opinion says. “The University has the resources needed to ensure a safe and lawful Entheofest, and, as a result, plaintiffs are entitled to a preliminary injunction to protect their First Amendment rights.”
“The purpose of the Diag is to provide a designated space to gather and for expression and public discourse-the core constitutional rights of free speech and assembly. The provision of this forum not only benefits the speakers and listeners themselves, but also the University, as it promotes the University’s core mission of educating a virtuous citizenry. In other words, the University benefits from the provision of this forum; it is not solely a source of expense.”
The court ultimately granted the student group’s request for a preliminary injunction.
The university “shall approve plaintiffs’ application for a Diag reservation permit to host Entheofest 2025 on September 21, 2025,” Swartzle said. “The parties shall work collaboratively to develop and implement sufficient security measures to ensure a safe and lawful event.”
However, the case isn’t officially closed because of that “pending claim” concerning collaboration between the university and SAP.
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Meanwhile, Michigan Senate Democrats are reportedly moving toward implementing a major tax hike on marijuana that was previously proposed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).
While no legislation to effectuate the policy change has been filed yet, the plan is to impose a 32 percent wholesale excise tax on cannabis—which would be in addition to the existing 16 percent in taxes that are placed on marijuana at the retail level.
Officials separately announced in February that they’re disbursing nearly $100 million in marijuana tax revenue to over 300 cities and tribes across the state thanks to the state’s adult-use legalization law. That’s part of the overall $331 million in tax dollars Michigan is distributing across various initiatives.
The tax revenue supporting these disbursements is the result of a record year for marijuana sales in Michigan, with over $10 billion in adult-use cannabis products sold in 2024.
State officials said in late 2023 that tax revenue from legal marijuana grew by 49 percent compared to 2022, surpassing the amount of revenue made from alcohol sales. Marijuana sales incur a 10 percent excise tax—among the lowest rates in the nation—as well as a 6 percent state sales tax.
Also, lawmakers recently introduced legislation that would exempt adults with PTSD from state laws against the possession, cultivation and use of psilocybin and psilocin, the two primary active components of psychedelic mushrooms.
Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype and Apollo.
