Memory Lane: Hash Wednesday

Hash Wednesday, 1980 (Image courtesy of University of Illinois Archives)

Today, there are more than half-a-dozen pot dispensaries within a short drive of campus. But until 2020, when recreational marijuana use was legalized in Illinois, U. of I. students were taking the law into their own joint-filled hands every time they lit up. And that was perhaps never more true than at the annual Hash Wednesday celebration that took over the Quad once a year from 1977 to 2006.

What was Hash Wednesday?

Not to bogart your time, man, but Hash Wednesday was a non-sanctioned, enormous rally to support both the legalization of marijuana and criminal justice reform, where thousands of people got stoned, heard political speeches and enjoyed live music. For generations of Illinois weed enthusiasts, it was a beloved event, and the university and local police did very little to stop it most years because of the huge attendance. (They would have had to arrest everyone.)

The “hash bash” started in 1977, when Bruce Bethell, ’80 LAS, MA ’98 LAS, and Mitch Altman, ’80 ENG, MS ’84 ENG, decided to host a rally to support the reform of marijuana laws. That first year, more than a hundred people showed up to get high, throw Frisbees, play music and enjoy the weather.

Even more people showed up the following year, and a hazy, lazy, fog-inducing tradition was born.

“I remember walking from Altgeld to Allen Hall,” says Pete Wung, ’83 ENG, “then waking up in my bed and wondering what had happened. Let’s just say that I had lots of friends who were quite generous with their stash.”

Max Lynch evangelizing, 1979 (Image courtesy of University of Illinois Archives)

But it wasn’t only pot smokers who came to Hash Wednesday.

“After Reagan became president,” recalls Altman, “there were protestors!”

And you could always count on the infamous Quad preachers, such as Jed and Max, to show up and tell the congregants they were all going to hell.

“Preacher Dan had his ‘This is your brain on drugs’ sign,” remembers Rene Rylander, ’79 FAA, MS ’80 FAA. “My friends thought it was great fun to heckle him!”

By the mid-1980s, people were coming from hundreds of miles away to attend the event, and it grew so large that the University Police had to close local streets. But despite the crowds, Hash Wednesday more or less remained an anything-goes affair. Students got creative with their weed-smoking—Mike Szymborski, ’87 LAS, had a gas-mask bong—and participation was so widespread that police didn’t even try to make arrests, even when the law-breaking was as flagrant as could be, such as in 1987 when one enterprising fellow brought a lifeguard chair and a 30-foot bong as his accoutrements.

Then, in 1988, the police started cracking down, arresting 11 of the 600 revelers for marijuana possession.

The impact on the event was swift and immediate. Afterwards, says Sean Mackenzie, ’91 LAS, “it was mostly people putting on their tie-dyes, kicking the hacky sack and chilling. Almost no one was actually smoking the stuff on the Quad.”

Nevertheless, Hash Wednesday continued until 2006, albeit on a more modest scale, with organizers staging on-brand attractions such as a celebrity pothead look-alike contest and an oregano joint-rolling competition.

Nineteen years later, one of the lasting legacies of Hash Wednesday is that it contributed to the eventual reform of marijuana laws across the nation. Today, recreational marijuana is legal in 24 states, while medical marijuana is available in 14 others.

If you just heard a noise, no doubt it was the thousands of Illinois hash bashers around the world flicking their Bics in salute.

If Hash Wednesday sounds like a university administrator’s worst nightmare, that’s because it was. “I worked for the U. of I.,” says alumnus Pat Forden, “and I remember various administrators having nervous breakdowns about it!” (Image courtesy of University of Illinois Archives)