"What happens is Eric's car breaks down at the side of the road and I just appear out of the bushes. At the very end I'm in the basement, and Hyde (Danny Masterson) is there, and Hyde's the only guy I recognize.

"It's a real easy scene, and I got such a beautiful reception from the cast and crew. Everybody was so happy to have me back."

Chong's whereabouts are better known than Leo's. The Canadian-born comic, one-half of the platinum-selling stoner team of Cheech & Chong, was released in July after nine months in jail for selling personalized marijuana pipes on the Internet. No pot, just paraphernalia -- such is the Bush War on Drugs.

So how was his time in the, um, joint? He laughs at the euphemism. "How was the slammer?" he says. "It was a beautiful experience. The thought of going in for what I did was hellish. But being unfairly imprisoned gives me something in common with Martin Luther King and Lenny Bruce.

"But by and large it was a real easy experience. It was a minimum security camp, like a Camp Cupcake, near Bakersfield, Calif. There were Jewish gangs -- they controlled the library.

"The thing is, you put a stoner comedian in any jail and you're gonna find a fan base. My social calendar was pretty full."

It was a non-violent prison population, he says, "a lot of pot growers doing, like 20 years, 'cause they found a rifle on the farm where they were growing it in the country. America's gone totally wacko and has been wacko for a lot longer than we thought.

"I met, like, eight doctors who were there for Medicare fraud --people trying to help people with America's non-existent health-care system. You could say they did it for profit in the sense that they were performing procedures that weren't covered in Medicare and billing for something else.

"What was beautiful was that I was privy to a world you usually don't see unless you're a criminal. By actually being a criminal instead of a writer/comedian, I had the opportunity of a lifetime. I got to see firsthand what the system is about."

Since getting out of jail, Chong has returned to the standup stage (he did a stint in New York in December in the off-Broadway spoof The Marijuanalogues). Fans can expect the usual grab bag of old Cheech & Chong songs like Earache My Eye and originals -- as well as a rant or two about life behind bars.

For now, he's confining his comedy to Canada. "I wouldn't chance it down here yet, not while I'm on probation. They put me in jail for a bong. Could you imagine what they would do if I started spouting my hippie logic onstage in the U.S.?"

Ah, yes, probation. Chong is still drug-tested regularly and says he hasn't smoked pot for two years.

A release party was postponed because, "Technically, I can't even be around roach clips." All bets are off in July when his probation runs out.

"Of course," he says when asked if he'll indulge again. "I've had nothing but good experiences with pot -- other than the jail time."

Skedded to shoot this spring: The much-talked-about reunion movie with partner Cheech Marin. Tentative title: Grumpy Old Stoners. "The plot is, Cheech is fired 'cause he's bald, and I invent a pot lotion that grows hair."

And hilarity ensues -- along with a case of the munchies, we bet.

Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Author: Jim Slotek -- Winnipeg Sun
Published: January 31, 2005
Copyright: 2005 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: editor@wpgsun.com
Website: http://www.winnipegsun.com/

Related Articles & Web Site:

He's Taking One Big Hit
http://freedomtoexhale.com/tommy.htm

Tommy Chong Still Has What It Tokes
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20180.shtml

Chong Family Values
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17916.shtml

February 13, 2005

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — Cheech and Chong may have joked about marijuana in their movies, but the comedians say they didn't touch the stuff when the cameras were rolling.

"We tried one time and we wasted so much film," said Tommy Chong, recalling a scene in "Up in Smoke." "We were in the car waiting for the cue, you know. And the camera's rolling and we're sitting there, you know, and neither one of us heard the cue."

Chong and former partner Cheech Marin appeared together for the first time in 20 years at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.

Chong said he isn't ashamed of introducing millions of Vietnam-era kids to marijuana. "When you think of how many kids died drinking alcohol, I feel I've saved millions of lives," he said.

Marin said their humor was appreciated by an unexpected group: "Cops were our biggest fans. Because they dealt in what we were dealing with everyday, but in reality... they saw the essential humor and they laughed."

Marin and Chong, who recently completed a nine-month sentence for trying to sell marijuana pipes on the Internet, said they are writing two new films, "Grumpy Old Stoners" and "Lord of the Smoke."

Shame, shame, shame on the thieves disquised as drug warriors. Shame on them.

Prohibitionists should be ashamed. Shame, shame, shame on them.

"Slave driver the table is turned Catch a fire so you can get burned Slave driver the table is turned Catch a fire you're gonna get burned

"Ev'ry time I hear the crack of the whip My blood runs cold I remember on the slave ship How they brutalised our very souls Today they say that we are free Only to be chained in poverty Good god, I think it's all illiteracy It's only a machine that make money

"Slave driver the table is turned

"Slave driver the table is turned baby now Catch a fire so you can get burned baby now Slave driver the table is turned Catch a fire so you can get burned

"Ev'ry time I hear the crack of the whip My blood runs cold I remember on the slave ship How they brutalised our very souls

"Oh god have mercy on our souls" --Slave Driver by Bob Marley, The Words of Bob Marley by Song Title http://www.bobmarley.com/songs/songs.cgi?slave

SOUNDCLIP REAL MEDIA [If it's slow loading, try right-click and Open in a New Window]http://www.bobmarley.com/songs/ram/slave.ram

"Description

"Recounting the assassination attempt on his life in December 1976, Bob denounces those who keep the people ignorant and consequently wavering enough to shoot each other in the name of political games.

"Lyrics

"See them fighting for power But they know not the hour So they bribing with Their guns, spare-parts and money Trying to belittle our integrity They say what we know Is just what they teach us Thru political strategy They keep us hungry When you gonna get some food Your brother got to be your enemy

"Ambush in the night All guns aiming at me Ambush in the night They opened fire on me Ambush in the night Protected by His Majesty

"See them fighting for power But they know not the hour So they bribing With their guns, spare-parts and money Trying to belittle our integrity Well what we know Is not what they tell us We're not ignorant, I mean it And they just could not touch us Thru the powers of the most high We keep on surfacing Thru the powers of the most high We keep on surviving

"Ambush in the night Planned by society Ambush in the night They are trying to conquer me Ambush in the night Anything money can bring Ambush in the night Planned by society Ambush in the night" --Ambush in the Night by Bob Marley, The Words of Bob Marley by Song Title http://www.bobmarley.com/songs/songs.cgi?ambush

The local TV news reported on the complete forfeiture of an entire ranch owned by a family that had held the land for 6 generations, since the first land grants, because one member of the family had secreted a few plants...12, I think it was, on the ranch. I couldn't believe I was living in a country that would do such an outrageous thing to it's citizens.

The first outrage that I recall was when a young member of the Harlem Globetrotters was arrested on the Interstate near here and found to have one joint in his shirt pocket and served 5 years in the Texas Penitentiary.

Since those times it's just been one outrage after another, until this citizen just had to start complaining out loud in a citizenry that was too afraid or too propagandized to speak out against such injustice.

I cry out to God regularly, "When will this injustice end?" "When, Lord? When?"

FAMM Day at the Capitol Wednesday, February 2, 2005 Andreson House Office Building Mackinac Room, Fith Floor 124 North Capitol (corner of Ottawa and Capitol Streets) Lansing MI.

we needed 350,000 we got a little over 250,000 we had no out side money and did it all by volunteers.