Hundreds of local entheogenic
and
psychedelic
plant
activists
gathered on the University of
Michigan Diag on Sept. 19 for the
first-ever Entheofest, a celebration
and call for the decriminalization
of plant medicines and fungi in Ann
Arbor and beyond. The event began
exactly at 11:11 a.m. and ended at 2:22
p.m.
The celebration came a year after
the Ann Arbor City Council voted to
decriminalize the use and possession
of entheogenic plants in September
2020. The resolution the council
voted to approve stated that arresting
individuals for use of entheogenic
plants such as mushrooms would
be the city’s “lowest priority.” At
the meeting, many community
members voiced their support for
the
decriminalization
of
these
psychedelic substances.
With
the
passage
of
the
resolution, Ann Arbor became one
of a handful of cities in the country to
decriminalize psychedelics. Denver
legalized entheogenic plants in May
2019, becoming the first city to do so.
In January 2021, Washtenaw
County
Prosecutor
Eli
Savit
announced that his office will no
longer prosecute individuals for use
of marijuana or entheogenic plants.
A few months later, in August,
City Council declared September
the Entheogenic Plant and Fungi
Awareness month.
Ellie
Ribitwer
and
Marina
Chupac, criminal defense attorneys
in Wayne County, decided to attend
Entheofest
together
in
support
of
the
decriminalization
and
destigmatization of entheogens.
“This is the beginning of getting
everybody together, passing out
information, setting up booths and
having the prosecutors speak on it,”
Ribitwer said. “There’s been a lot of
prosecutions for this when really
it doesn’t need to be categorized as
a drug. I think it has crazy healing
properties, the clinical tests on
PTSD and depression and all of that
is profound. And I think the War on
Drugs is ending, and if Michigan can
get ahead of it the way that California
and Oregon have, let’s do it.”
Chupac told The Michigan Daily
she has “no shame” in admitting that
she uses entheogens because she
finds them helpful for improving her
mental health.
“I’ve used these psychedelic plants
in the past to open my mind and my
heart,” Chupac said. “It’s changed
the way I live, the way I look at
everything I see and my connection
to other people and that’s important.
I think that psychedelics, in general,
help open up that gateway, and the
more connected we are, the better off
we are as a unit.”
School of Social Work student
Christian Smith attended the event
and said Entheofest was planned
in celebration of the anniversary of
the council’s vote to decriminalize
entheogenic plants.
“Psychedelics … have been used
by humans for thousands of years
for healing, both (for) interpersonal
and intercultural healing,” Smith
said. “And this is a celebration of the
year anniversary of decriminalizing
sacred plant medicines in Ann
Arbor.”
State Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann
Arbor, spoke to the crowd about his
efforts to pass Senate Bill 631, which
would legalize entheogenic plants
and fungi for non-commercial use in
Michigan.
Students have expressed concern
that a lack of knowledge about
potential exposures could lead to
increased spread of the virus since
the University of Michigan stopped
sending classroom and building
COVID-19 notifications on Sept. 14.
Previously, after a student tested
positive for COVID-19, the University
sent out a notification to the class
rosters for all in-person and hybrid
classes that the student was taking.
However, the notification did not
specify which class the student was
in, the date that students could have
been exposed or if the student who
tested positive had even attended
class in-person recently.
The University announced this
policy change in an article published
in the University Record. The
announcement said that classrooms
have not been associated with the
spread of COVID-19, simply being
in a class with somebody who tests
positive for COVID-19 does not
qualify as a “close contact” exposure
and the notifications were confusing
and of limited benefit.
University
President
Mark
Schlissel and Provost Susan Collins
previously said classrooms are “the
safest place to be on campus” due
to mask and vaccine requirements.
According to the Campus Blueprint,
95% of students, 83% of staff and 94%
of faculty are fully vaccinated.
Rackham student Ryan Glauser,
COVID-19 caucus co-chair of the
Graduate Employees’ Union, said the
University did not inform GEO or
Graduate Student Instructors prior
to announcing the decision to end
COVID-19 classroom notifications.
Glauser said he would have preferred
to learn about this information from a
supervisor rather than via a Michigan
Daily story.
“There is no reason that the union,
or me, should find out that I’m no
longer being told I’m getting exposed
to COVID from a newspaper article,”
Glauser said. “My supervisor should
be the one telling me we’re making a
substantial policy change here.”
Though
the
University
discontinued the notifications, they
will continue to trace close contacts
of people who tested positive for
COVID-19, the Record article states.
Robert Ernst, executive director of
University Health Service, told the
University
Record
close-contact
tracing is a more effective mitigation
strategy than the emails.
“Targeted
individual
case
investigation and associated contact
tracing are more effective parts of the
mitigation strategy designed to limit
spread,” Ernst said.
Glauser said he never received any
COVID-19 classroom notifications,
though several of his students
personally told him they were
diagnosed with COVID-19 or were
quarantined due to close classroom
contacts.
“I’ve only found out because my
students have told me, and in the first
few weeks I’ve had about a quarter
of my class miss a week because of
COVID issues,” Glauser said.
Music, Theatre & Dance junior
Sam Todd said he believes the
University should have improved the
COVID-19 classroom notifications
instead of ending them altogether.
“(The University) would tell you
that there was a COVID case … but
(they’re) not going to tell you where it
is,” Todd said. “It was confusing, but
don’t throw the baby out the window.”
From local coffee shops to Cuban
restaurants to University of Michigan
residence halls, Ann Arbor businesses
say
they
are
facing
employee
shortages, when the number of
customers are increasing as COVID-
19 restrictions ease up and vaccination
rates increase.
This trend also exists nationwide,
as labor shortages continue to
challenge
business
owners
and
strain the productivity of their
establishments. On campus, residence
and dining halls are also facing similar
difficulties in searching for student
employees.
Economics
professor
Linda
Tesar
said
that
some
people
are still concerned about being
exposed to COVID-19, especially
in establishments where possibly
unvaccinated
customers
are
constantly coming in and out.
Some people may have also begun
to aim for higher pay and are willing
to wait for a more ideal job to come
along, Tesar said.
“Some workers could be covering
their expenses with the COVID
stimulus support and therefore have
time to look for the job they really
want, rather than take the next job
that is available,” Tesar said. “And it
could be that people’s views about
how much they need to be paid to do
certain kinds of work have shifted
with the pandemic.”
LSA junior Anthony Marx, a
residential advisor in North Quad
Residence Hall, said dining hall
hours and residence hall activities
have been limited due to the small
number of available staff members.
Some floors that are supposed to have
two residential advisors are left with
one, and dining halls are only open
for a few blocks of time during the
weekend, Marx said.
Marx added that he hopes more
people will apply to become staff
members and allow dining and
residency to return to a more normal
schedule.
“I would say apply for those jobs
at MDining or Housing,” Marx said.
“They are really a great opportunity
to get some work experience under
your belt but also support the
University and (help us) get back
to those hours that (students) were
used to.”
During the first week of classes,
as students faced long lines for
busses, University spokesperson Kim
Broekhuizen told the Daily it was due
to a University labor shortage.
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Wednesday, September 22, 2021
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Ann Arbor, UMich face a shortage of
employees as students return to city
Leasing companies sue city over requirement that they wait 150 days to show property
ARJUN THAKKAR
Daily Staff Reporter
CAMPUS LIFE
Campus reacts to end of
COVID-19 notices
Community no longer notified of classroom exposure
Design by Jessica Chiu
ANN ARBOR
Local businesses, residence halls struggle to meet heightened demand for service
JUSTIN O’BEIRNE
Daily Staff Reporter
Multiple landlords and leasing
companies in Ann Arbor are suing
the city of Ann Arbor for a City
Council ordinance passed Aug. 2 that
gives tenants more time before they
can be asked to renew their contracts.
The new Early Leasing Ordinance
requires that landlords wait until 150
days prior to the end of a lease before
showing a property to prospective
tenants. Before this ordinance was
passed, landlords only had to wait
70 days after a lease started before
showing leasing units, though leasing
companies have historically found
ways to avoid the regulations.
Students and tenants have said
the previous leasing timeline puts
pressure on them to renew their
leases or sign a new lease very early
in the academic year. The ordinance
aims to limit this pressure on tenants
by giving them more time to decide
if they want to renew as well as by
giving them more time to search
for the next year’s housing and
roommates.
Landlords
shared
their
opposition to the restrictions during
previous City Council hearings and
are now considering ways to get
around the regulations, which went
into effect Aug. 15.
The Washtenaw Area Apartment
Association, a non-profit organization
that advocates on behalf of rental
property owners, filed a lawsuit on
Sep. 10 against the city of Ann Arbor in
the U.S. District Court Eastern District
of Michigan seeking to overturn the
city’s early leasing restrictions.
The plaintiffs, which include
several companies that lease to
students in Ann Arbor, argue
the ordinance violates the First
Amendment’s
protection
of
“restrictions on commercial speech”
that apply to landlords.
The landlord plaintiffs claim the
ordinance did not have a specific
governmental purpose and was
solely created with the “private
purpose” of catering to University of
Michigan students. They also argued
the regulations would expand the
presence of unregulated renting.
“By enacting the (ordinance
provisions) at the behest of certain
University of Michigan students, the
City has exercised its police power
in the service of special, private
interests at the sole expense of Ann
Arbor landlords,” the complaint
reads. “The (provisions) simply serve
(to) encourage off-books or black-
market leasing activity.”
DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily
Landlords are suing the city of Ann Arbor over an ordinance that gives tenants more time before they have to renew their contracts.
Landlords resisting early leasing
ordinance prompt frustration
First Entheofest
draws crowd to Diag
Event celebrated decriminalization of psychedelics
EMILY BLUMBERG
Daily Staff Reporter
LIAT WEINSTEIN, CALDER LEW-
IS, KRISTINA ZHENG & MARTHA
LEWAND
Daily News Editors & Daily Staff Reporter
See ENTHEOFEST, Page 2
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
HOUSING
Read more at MichiganDaily.com