cannabisnews.com: Chong Takes Potshots at Grass Laws





Chong Takes Potshots at Grass Laws
Posted by CN Staff on May 02, 2003 at 07:46:13 PT
By Jim Slotek, Sun Media
Source: Edmonton Sun
Tommy Chong's first joint, the one that was supposed to turn him into a homicidal maniac, was handed to him in Calgary in 1957 by a Chinese bass player. It was a life-changing experience, not least because he and partner Cheech Marin would one day earn many millions of dollars with pot-comedy albums and movies like Up In Smoke. "I was 17 years old," Chong says over the phone from his home in Pacific Palisades, California, where, he says, "I live two blocks away from Steven Spielberg. 
There's all kinds of famous people on this street. And they all smoke pot." Back to 1950s Alberta. "This Chinese blues guy, a bass player named Mah ... Eddie Mah? I can't remember. He gave me my first joint and my first Lenny Bruce record. He'd been in California where he bought them. No one knew what pot was, so you could bring it across the border without worrying. "I kept that one joint. It lasted me a long time. I'd take a few tokes and put it out. It really changed my life. I quit school right away and decided I wanted to be a blues musician." Chong says he used to hang out at a little jazz club in Calgary called the Flat Five, and continued his blues education in Vancouver. "Vancouver was weird. You couldn't get pot as easy as you could get heroin," he says. "Heroin I avoided. The way I stayed off coke was I never bought it. The only other drug I liked was acid. Both acid and pot gave me religious experiences. I've always been a seeker, a student of the Bible, and pot really enhanced that." In fact, Chong sees the Bible as full of drug references - Moses's burning bush, God speaking in a cloud of smoke, etc. But marijuana wouldn't become his source of income for years, even after he ditched guitar playing for improv comedy with his own Vancouver-based troupe, CityWorks. It was in "Van" that he met a comic named Richard "Cheech" Marin. "We started a group together, and played strip clubs. Lots of sex jokes but no pot jokes. Then we moved to L.A. and one night we played near Cheech's home town in the San Fernando Valley. And we weren't going over. "And I said, 'You're from here, man, there must be some kind of character we can pull out!' And he started doing the 'Low-rider' and I started doing 'The Stoner,' who became our characters Pedro and Man." Cheech and Chong split in 1984. Cheech opted for a straight acting career, Chong for stand-up comedy. They dovetailed, ironically, in 1997, when Chong visited Cheech on the set of Nash Bridges, and came away with a bud in his pocket. Chong was sniffed out by a dog at Vancouver airport and let go with a minimum of hassle by apologetic customs guards. Now they're back together, writing another movie. And after nearly 50 years of pot smoking, Chong has been slapped with his first felony charge - using the mails for illegal purposes. In a nationwide bust of people selling drug paraphernalia over the Internet, Drug Enforcement Agency officers broke into Chong's house and a factory in Gardenia, California, where he and one of his sons were making and selling Tommy Chong Glass Water Bongs. "It was 5:30 in the morning, the SWAT team and helicopters. They came busting in with the guns drawn, yelling 'Don't move!' They'd been investigating me for a year, spent a lot of money. And there was nothing to investigate. We were wide open. We got a California business licence. Our only crime was selling to an undercover cop in Pennsylvania." Chong appears ready to plea-bargain, "and I've been told if I don't cause a spectacle, I'll get off with a slap on the wrist. "Pot laws are racist," he says. "They're used to provide an excuse to arrest blacks, and take away their vote, because, in the U.S., once you've been convicted of a felony, you can't vote. "The paraphernalia law is even worse. They (the studios) put out lunchboxes with my face on showing me smoking a joint, from the movie Up In Smoke, and that's legal. The thermos bottle in it could be used as a bong. "The law is f---ed." Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Author: Jim Slotek, Sun MediaPublished: Friday, May 2, 2003  Copyright: 2003 Canoe Limited PartnershipContact: letters edm.sunpub.comWebsite: http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtmlRelated Article & Web Site:Tommy Chong's Web Site http://www.tommychong.comDEA's Raid Helps Fire Up Chong's Acthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15740.shtmlCannabisNews Paraphernalia Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/paraphernalia.shtml 
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on May 13, 2003 at 13:29:47 PT:
Canadian Situation on Paraphernalia.
Apparently devices for smoking tobacco are legal in Canada. Herbal smoking mixtures are also legal, sold separately. These are retail sales in licensed stores. No contested or illegal sales are allowed. This information is based on an oral interview. If anyone knows of any information that contradicts this analysis, please post here.ego transcendence follows ego destruction, and suddenly there is no problem.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on May 13, 2003 at 12:38:00 PT
Tommy Chong Enters Federal Plea In Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH, 1:53 p.m. EDT May 13, 2003 - Actor-comedian Tommy Chong pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal drug charges stemming from a nationwide drug sweep in February, WTAE's Jake Ploeger reported. 
Chong, best known for the "Cheech And Chong" movies of the 1970s and 1980s, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell drug paraphernalia and offer drug paraphernalia for sale. The maximum penalty is three years in jail. In exchange for his plea, Chong will likely receive a lesser sentence of six to 12 months. The case is part of "Operation Pipe Dreams," a national drug crackdown which Attorney General John Ashcroft said stretches from Pittsburgh to Phoenix to southern California. Prosecutors said Chong sold bongs, pipes and other items used to smoke marijuana on a Web site from September 2001 to February 2003. The items were distributed to stores across the country, including several in western Pennsylvania, prosecutors said. Federal agents raided Chong's California home in February. They said they found financial records linking Chong to the bong sales. Chong is free on his own recognizance. He must return to Pittsburgh for a sentencing hearing on Sept. 11. 
http://www.msnbc.com/local/WTAE/A1615819.asp?cp1=1
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Comment #2 posted by Rev Jonathan Adler on May 04, 2003 at 22:08:16 PT:
Freedom has it's Costs!
What if we did have an inalienable right to choose to smoke cannabis? Would anyone bother to say so? What if the government had no right to say we don't have rights? Would we be free to choose without penalty?
Well we do, They don't and THEY Really Don't! Freedom has penalties for expression. Just ask a legal medical cultivator who still did 6 months in jail! Judge's still think they can intervene in religious affairs of healing , worship and prayer even though there is separation betweeen church and state. Confidentiality protects us from Government interference. So does the law. Check out Guam vs. Guerrero or State vs. Rev Jonathan Adler (Valid religious use.) It feels good to exercise my legitimate religion! Peace. See www.medijuana.com Thanks to Tommy Chong. I visited your studio once. It was great! "Best Buds" was a good idea. I sure could use a partner like you. My son blows glass too. Peace Out!
Hawaii Medical Marijuana Institute
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Comment #1 posted by delariand on May 02, 2003 at 11:58:04 PT
Government overstepping it's boundary
Chong appears ready to plea-bargain, "and I've been told if I don't cause a spectacle, I'll get off with a slap on the wrist. In other words, the government's position is "We're doing this to make you be quiet about pot. Now you'd better get quiet and stay quiet, or things are going to get a whole lot worse for you"Oh, that's absolutely NOT the DEA misusing it's power to squash a political minority, is it? But, that would be unconstitutional! You can't do that in America... right?
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