Sinclair Talks Marijuana in R.O.

Editor’s note: Detroit poet John Sinclair talked about marijuana at Royal Oak’s Kimball High School, and Royal Oak hasn’t quite gotten over it yet. Below is a story reprinted from that city’s newspaper, the Royal Oak Tribune:

Royal Oak City Commissioners expressed concern Monday night about a speaker last Thursday at Kimball High School who advocated legalization of marijuana sales.

Most outspoken was Commissioner James P. Cline, who said “Somewhere along the line, the School Board should be aware of what we feel is in good taste.”

Cline said he was told by police that the talk by John Sinclair, from one of Detroit’s newest inner-city developments, Plum Street, had set their indoctrination program on narcotics “back 20 years.”

“Freedom of speech is great,” said Cline, “but lines have to be drawn somewhere.

“The next thing you know, they’ll have prostitutes speaking of the monetary gains of their profession. We should take a very negative view of this,” he said.

“I feel the people themselves are going to have to be educated to this,” said Mayor L. Curtis Potter.

“I do have in mind a meeting with the School Board alerting them to our opinion.”

The mayor said it wasn’t his intention to become involved in an argument with the Board. “Public opinion can do wonders and this is where it should come from,” he said.

The school justified the talk to a government class as one of two sides of a controversial topic. A doctor is scheduled to speak this week on the hazards of narcotics, said Miss Judith Owens, one of three teachers handling the team-taught class.

Commissioner Barbara P. Mitchell said she feels that students “could see through the fallacies of Sinclair’s speech.”

“I’m not concerned about the ones who can, but rather the ones who can’t,” said Cline.

“We should voice an opinion on this.”