Longtime Michigan hashish activist Dale “Rick” Thompson died on Monday following a battle with most cancers, MLive stories. Thompson was 57-years-old.
Thompson started full-time activism for hashish coverage reforms in 2010 and, till he grew to become too ailing, hosted the Jazz Cabbage Café podcast, beforehand the Medical Marijuana Radio Present alongside Jamie Lowell and Ryan Basore.
“Rick is righteous and he at all times stood up for what he believed in, it doesn’t matter what. … He simply checks off each field, as an individual that loves his household, is righteous, has labored exhausting towards one thing they consider in and accomplishes vital issues. I realized loads from him.” — Lowell to MLive
Thompson labored with native governments to decriminalize hashish following the passage of medical hashish in 2008. He was a frontrunner within the MI Legalize initiative that helped move adult-use hashish reforms in 2018. He had additionally served on the board of NORML since 2014 till stepping down when his well being started to say no. He additionally served because the editor-in-chief from Michigan Medical Marijuana Journal and Compassion Chronicles.
Thompson appeared on a 2018 episode of the Ganjapreneur podcast, saying he was capable of stay a hashish activist “by staying true” to his objective and “utterly devoting every part” he had.
“If I had a nine-to-five job like most different folks, I wouldn’t have been practically as efficient in architecting change, and in serving to different folks do the identical,” he stated within the interview.
Thompson additionally labored for Basore’s Redemption Basis, a nonprofit dedicated to serving to these negatively impacted by prior hashish prohibition and prosecution.
Robin Schneider, director of the Michigan Hashish Business Affiliation, famous that “Hashish didn’t legalize itself.”
“There have been lots of women and men who labored endlessly to alter these legal guidelines,” she instructed MLive, “and Rick Thompson was a type of folks.”
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