Rainbow Farm

Rainbow Farm was a campground in Vandalia, Michigan, run by Tom Crosslin and his lover Rolland "Rollie" Rohm and home to two controversial festivals, HempAid on Memorial Day and Roach Roast on Labor Day.

History

Beginning in 1996, the two annual Rainbow Farm events, HempAid on Memorial Day and Roach Roast on Labor Day, were part Woodstock, part union picnic. They were family-oriented affairs, with Rohm's son, Robert, wheeling his golf cart among the soft-drink stands and hemp clothing vendors and representatives from the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws. Cannabis smoke in the air, LSD doses on their tongues, festival-goers listened to onstage speakers rally against government oppression. Guests included the chairman of the Van Buren County Libertarian Party, Tommy Chong of "Cheech and Chong" fame, High Times editor Steve Hager and MC5 manager and White Panther Party jefe John Sinclair, who, in 1969, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possessing two joints. Most of them, unlike Crosslin or Rohm, could trace a linage to radicalism of the 1960s, when they played to a more engaged audience.

These events from 1996 through 2001 made Rainbow Farm the center of marijuana activism in Michigan.

Rainbow Farm supported the "medical, spiritual, and responsible recreational uses of marijuana for a more sane and compassionate America". [ cite web
title = Their Purpose
work = Memorial Site for Rainbow Farm
url = http://www.rainbowfarmcamp.com/purpose.htm
accessdate = 2007-03-17] Rainbow Farm was the focus of an intensive investigation by Cass County prosecutor Scott Teter. The investigation eventually came to a head in early September 2001 with the burning down of all the structures on the property and the shooting deaths of both Tom Crosslin and Rolland Rohm.

Time Line

* 1993: Tom Crosslin buys the property for Rainbow Farm in Vandalia, Michigan. The farm begins holding annual "hemp festivals."
* 1996: Scott Teter is elected Cass County prosecutor.
* 1999-2000: Rainbow Farm campaigns for the Personal Responsibility Amendment, a failed measure that sought to legalize private use of marijuana.
* 2001 - April: Rainbow Farm is linked to the death of a Berrien County teenager killed April 21, 2001, after his car crashes into a school bus carrying Eau Claire High School students.
* 2001 - May: Crosslin and his lover, Rolland Rohm, are arrested for growing marijuana in their house. Rohm's son, Robert, is placed in foster care.
* 2001 - August: Crosslin and Rohm skip their court date and begin systematically setting fire to Rainbow Farm.
* 2001 - September: Crosslin is killed by FBI sharpshooters on 3 September; Rohm is shot and killed the next morning. Both had raised their weapons in an intimidating way toward the officers.

Notes

Resources

*cite book
last = Kuipers
first = Dean
authorlink = Dean Kuipers
title = Burning Rainbow Farm: How a Stoner Utopia Went Up in Smoke
publisher = Bloomsbury
date = 2006
isbn = 1596911425
* [http://www.rainbowfarmcamp.com/ Memorial Site for Rainbow Farm: Vandalia, Michigan]
* [http://www.notesonthescene.com/rainbow_farm.html A Festival Utopia: Rainbow Farm, five years after the flames] by Rob Robinson
* [http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v03.n1305.a07.html? In-Depth 2003 Playboy Article]
* [http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wmuk/local-wmuk-516928.mp3 NPR audio interview with Dean Kuipers, author of 'Burning Rainbow Farm']