Pot icon Tommy Chong makes movie of his imprisonment

reuters.com ^ | 9 10 05 | Cameron French

[freepatriot32]

TORONTO (Reuters) - Comedian Tommy Chong has spent almost three decades wringing laughs from cigar-sized joints and smoke-filled vans but now a nine-month jail term has turned him serious and revitalized his flagging career.

Promoting his documentary "a/k/a Tommy Chong" at the Toronto International Film Festival, he hopes the film will expose what he says is the U.S. government's heavy-handed dealing with marijuana offenders in the post-September 11 era.

"The United States is under martial law, it's under dictatorship," the 67-year-old father of four said in an interview.

The film chronicles the Canadian-born comedian's 2003 arrest and imprisonment for selling drug paraphernalia online to an undercover U.S. drug enforcement agent.

The bust was part of a sting operation known as "Operation Pipe Dreams," which the film likens to a witch hunt by former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft following claims that drug trafficking financed terrorist activities.

The film's producers say the federal government spent $12 million pursuing Chong and compare that to the $25 million bounty for the capture of Osama bin Laden.

Chong has been an outspoken marijuana advocate since his days in the Cheech and Chong comedy team, which rode pot culture to fame in the 1970s with films like "Up in Smoke" and "Still Smokin."

The documentary suggests the government's motive was not to rid the Internet of a mail-order pipe-and-bong business but to send a message about Chong's three decades of movies and stand-up routines celebrating marijuana use.

"DEA AFRAID"

"The DEA was afraid that 'Up in Smoke' (the 1978 movie that made Cheech and Chong a household name) was going to be around forever and ever subverting young kids," Chong said. "Now, we've got this documentary that's going to be around forever."

Faced with the prospect of seeing his wife and son -- who was running the pipe business -- being prosecuted, Chong said he made a deal to serve nine months in a minimum-security prison

"It was easier for me to go to jail and do the time than it would be to fight," he said.

Since his release in 2004, Chong has worked the ordeal into his comedy routines and has been enjoying a larger stage than in his recent past.

"Jay Leno is a good example," he said. "He had me on the 'Tonight Show' before but just for little peripheral things, never on the couch, and when this happened, now I've been on the couch twice now."

"It's like the weed culture. You just wait, it'll change. Everything changes. Bush won't be in power forever, Ashcroft is already gone. There's going to be another cycle and it's going to go the other way."

[silent_jonny]

I see from your homepage that you are a Christian. I'm also a Christian. And I see no reason why two Christians should be arguing, or calling each other names, just because they happen to disagree on a subject. I'll leave it at that and say good night.

[Rca2000]

Ok, you two, lets shake hands and be friends again-- or else it the time-out chairs, for the both of 'ya!!

[Allosaurs_r_us]

All druggies are a waste of air, not just Chong.

 

What I don't understand is who made you and the government the supreme moral authority? Why is it any of your business what the hell Chong or the big bad pot smokers do with their lives? Hell why don't we just start enforcing capital punishment for everyone who waste their lives away according to your moral authority?

 

The friggin jails are bustin' out at the seams because we are imprisoning people for smoking an herb. I can't stand the stuff myself, but I can put away Johnny Walker with the best of them. I fail to see how you can stick with the argument about how dangerous "weed" is, yet drunk drivers are responsible for killing thousands every year. I have yet to hear of a fatality attributed solely to the driver being high on weed. I am quite certain there must be some, but the numbers are miniscule by comparison.

 

You do realize real criminals are getting out early and paroled now for crimes that should have locked them up for the rest of their lives solely because we have to make room for all of these dangerous guys like Chong, selling bongs on the internet. I don't know about you, but I would much rather see a child molester stay the hell in jail rather than give him a few months or years off for good behavior so we can jail the punk next door for having a pound of some foul smelling plant.

 

Every time I have seen this subject come up for discussion with the voters the majority seem to want to decriminalize it. If we had a few politicians who actually listened to the people, it would be just as legal as alcohol and the country would be better off for it. We are wasting untold resources on this when we should be after the more dangerous narcotics that plague our society.

 

[headsonpikes]

I see you're not alone on this thread - there are plenty of boot-lickers to share your fetish with!

Have a great day.

[MRMEAN]

OK, I've shrunk the thread, and reduced it the typical FR Drug Warrior vs. Drug War Critic "Critic" thread:

Drug Warrior: Druggies aren't worth the air they breath. They should be locked up forever. Why should I have support them?

Critic: Actually, people who consume drugs should be recognized as having the same rights as other Americans. Most of them would be happy to support themselves if they weren't imprisoned. In fact it would be much cheaper for you to just let them alone.

Drug Warrior: Drugs are bad for you. The government must take care of people who are too addicted to know what they are doing.

Critic: Actually most illegal drugs are no more harmful than legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco, and commonly used prescription drugs. In fact the most common illegal drugs as normally used are less harmful. Much of the harm of illegal drugs comes because the must be purchased from black market channels.

Drug Warrior: We are talking about illegal drugs here. Illegal means it's against the law. And why should I care about worthless druggies. It would be good to put poisons in drugs. It would serve the druggies right. And you must be one of those drug-using worthless hippie liberal-tarian ACLU NAMBLA members yourself.

Critic: Actually I'm concerned about restoring a free society, and limiting government. This whole drug war started in the 20th Century under liberal Democrats, and is undermining the Constitution.

Drug Warrior: You just want to stay in your parents' basement and get high. Drugs are bad because they are illegal, and they are illegal because they are bad. You should stop using drugs. You just want smoke dope, get naked, and have sex with your pets.

[ActionNewsBill]

I'm also a Christian. And I see no reason why two Christians should be arguing, or calling each other names, just because they happen to disagree on a subject.

I don't think it's very "Christian" to tell lies about someone, do you?

[TheClintons-STILLAnti-American]

"It's like the weed culture. You just wait, it'll change. Everything changes. Bush won't be in power forever, Ashcroft is already gone. There's going to be another cycle and it's going to go the other way."

I used to be a pothead like this dope and had pipe dreams like this, too.

Unlike Chong, however, I grew up.

[TheClintons-STILLAnti-American]

"The gentleman above spent much of his career raving against the evils of Marijuana, only to die of lung cancer. Another hypocritical law and order freak from Californicate."

Call me dense, but I fail to see the connection between being against marijuana and dying of lung cancer.

I assume you're suggesting that he got lung cancer from smoking cigarettes, and therefore he's a hypocrite for advocating against smoking marijuana?

If my assumptions are accurate, revealing such twisted logic, my question would be: And you call him a freak?

If my assumptions are wrong, please forgive me for pegging you as an idiot.

[tacticalogic]

It's a divisive issue. Somehow the subject has caused some people who claim to be conservatives, and to hold to conservative values of veracity and objectivity in their political discussions to abandon them to the point of reducing the discussion to meaningless slogans, sometimes intentionally.

[CSM]

"Better question is what is the morality you have that lets you pollute the population with more cr@p."

What value does legislated morality hold? If government force is used to ensure that all persons live to a specifice morality, what value does the individual free will hold? God gave the gift of a free will to men, yet you would prefer to take that gift from men thru government force. What makes the Righteous Right think that their standards are more legitimate than God's?

[dfwgator]

So Sargeant Stadenko finally got his man.

[CSM]

"If the tavern owners want to smoke in their private homes, they should go for it. The public places are more and more being protected."

And you supported the Kelo decision, right?

[CSM]

"No. You are not at liberty to break the law."

With your profound belief that all laws are morally right, do you believe that the legality of abortion is morally right?

[CSM]

"Yeah, I love it, at least lurkers will realize they aren't normal conservatism and are in way left field."

Please provide your definition of "normal conservatism" for us.

[Know your rights]

So should it be against the law to be drunk in one's own home with no minor children present?

I think being drunk on a regular basis is a problem.

Still strutting your intellectual cowardice, I see.

[MRMEAN]

As I said in an earlier post, I'm a fan of "Dragnet" radio series. I remember from the old TV series the hokey misinformation about marijuana and drugs. On the radio programs Jack Webb personally endorsed Camel Cigarettes, "Camels, they're best for you." He was using his image to sell ("push")an addicting substance (Joe Friday was a drug pusher!) You can call this "hypocrisy," or "lack of insight," or just the way things were. In any event the police celebrated Jack Webb.

Tommy Chong attempted to profit from his own image to sell water pipes, (not marijuana) and was imprisoned by the police for it. It is an interesting contrast.

Found this at word-detective.com:

There are times, and this is one of them, when I feel like calling Sergeant Joe Friday, played by Jack Webb on the old "Dragnet" TV series. Sergeant Friday not only maintained the same deadpan torpor no matter how bizarre a case he faced, but also frequently exhibited an impressively encyclopedic knowledge of street slang (supplied by scriptwriters apparently goofing on Mr. Webb). "It's marijuana," he'd declare, "also known to addicts as pot, acid, Mary Jane, boo-boo, bingo, hippie dust, Tijuana tea, speed, hooch, hash and Helmut the Wonder Horse."

[Know your rights]

Why don't you think we should shrink them by banning alcohol? (Not just DUI or public drunkenness, but a blanket ban like we have on other drugs.)

Alcohol is illegal in public over a certain level of toxicity.

Do you think lurkers can't read?

Your other illegal drugs are considered as bad as extreme alcohol toxicity from first use.

Such a "consideration" would be based on no factual data.

[Know your rights]

that "does" get confusing

You're the only one who's ever said they were confused by this convention. By the way, quotation marks are not used for emphasis in standard English ... THAT'S confusing.

[PaxMacian]

"first jail the distributors, sellers and growers and we'll go from there."

A CA Guy is the devil in disquise. Big government fascism is his dream. Don't let him fool you, he wants the users jailed too. Besides, distribution of herb is multi level marketing so must users are sellers.
40,000,000 users X $30,000/year = 1.2 trillion dollars per year in the US for just the incarceration involved in his plan, not arrests and prosecution.

It is simple fascist ignorance to believe that this herb bearing seed is just a weed to be eradicated when its seed contains the most complete and
absorbable combination of amino acids required by the human body for sustenance of any plant on the face of Earth. Moreover, it is unconstitutional to wage war upon our own citizenry for the possession, propagation, or protection of a gift from God. The days of corporate market manipulation using government force and false propaganda are coming to an end. The truth is out there and even ignorant fascists will be forced to reckon with it. God loves his children and knows better than you what gifts to give to them. So wage your war, rage on, kick your boots high in step, but know that true justice will remain in God's hands.

Mathew 5: 9
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

[PaxMacian]

"Thinking that one must have unfettered access to mind-numbing drugs to be "free" is stupid. Drugs don't make you free."

Genesis 1:29
And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.

Should the federal government possess the power to ban a gift from God which within its flower mirrors the chemistry of our mind and in its seed mirrors the substance of our body? What other gifts may it seek to deny us in the future? Such hubris stems from the Manichean heresy and its error of seeing things as evil. No thing is evil, in and of itself, it possesses no such nature. Actions taken may be against the will of God and thereby be defined as evil. Individuals are always redeemable and therefore cannot be evil.

The greatest evil in this case is an unconstitutional war upon our own citizenry over a gift from God. It opposes the will of God, which made herb, saw that it was good, and gave it to man and beast alike. Though the heretics have been empowered by deceit for a time to portray evil as incarnate, truth and justice shall prevail in time.

Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.