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."

[A CA Guy]

I do agree you should start an effort to ban alcohol.

You are misguided to be pushing the illegal drugs and make a better argument for further restriction of alcohol IMO.

Nice job.

Let me know when you start that thread.

[Know your rights]

I do agree you should start an effort to ban alcohol.

Would you support that effort?

[jmc813]

You're deliberately avoiding the question. Obviously, you beleive the founding fathers had no way of knowing how bad of a problem drugs would be, and therefore the Constitution should not apply to the war on drugs. I'm just curious as to if you feel, like Gov. Arnold that some restrictions on firearms ownership are reasonable.

We both agree that drugs are destructive. I've known people who have F'ed themselves up really bad because of substance abuse. I'm just looking for an answer to my question.

[Know your rights]

You're deliberately avoiding the question.

That's all he does on these threads: proclaim principles, then duck the questions about whether he consistently applies those priciples. Of course, the reason he does that is that he doesn't believe the principles he proclaims ... he just wants government to enforce his personal preferences, like all liberals.

[johnny7]

'Up in Smoke' still is funny.

LMAO! when he's at the unemployment-office sitting in the chair... watching the old dude yell everytime the junkie's about to nod out.

[A CA Guy]

I think we should look all the time at alcohol and the damage it does.
If the law isn't enough currently to prevent most problems, maybe banning or limiting certain other sales in various places should be considered, sure!

Just like illegal drugs are abusive from the first use, alcohol can be abused if used to greatly over a short period of time.

[Know your rights]

maybe banning or limiting certain other sales in various places should be considered

That's not the general ban I was discussing. Do you support a general ban, since alcohol is currently causing all the problems you complain about with other drugs?

Just like illegal drugs are abusive from the first use

What is your proof for this claim, and how is alcohol use not "abusive from the first use"?

[tacticalogic]

Do you have anything that doesn't come wrapped in a scumbag burrito?

[A CA Guy]

The founding fathers lived in another world which was mostly unpopulated, raw and the neighbors would hardly know anything you were doing.

In modern times we live on top of each other and as the druggies touch any part of society, they corrupt the security of the more self reliant and innocent people.

They cause with their drug abuse:
* Their immediate family hell on earth.
* Probably often endanger their children with their irresponsible behavior.
* Cause massive health costs to our public coffers.
* Cause lots of extra liability to the employers through civil suits and probable cause auto manufacturing to move out due to all the drug addictions found on the production lines.
* Probably have a bunch on welfare eating our tax dollars.

I think what we have today going on couldn't be foreseen by our Founding Fathers, just as landing on the moon was also rarely thought of.

Because of the very nature of living on top of each other more, equal rights means more restricted rights in behavior because what one considers a right, the neighbor considers and abuse of their rights.
Because of this we have laws regulating behaviors in a crowded society and libertarians least get this of any persons in America IMO.

I always tell the druggies here on FR that if you want to do your drugs, to be able to screw small children, chase your pets nude in the moonlight on your property and so forth, they need to go by an unpopulated island and then do what you want where others don't have you answering for your behavior.

If you want to still live in this crowded society, if you do the crime, get ready to put in the orange jumpsuit and do the time! :-)

[jmc813]

DUDE, WE AGREE THAT DRUG ABUSE IS BAD!!!!!!!

Because of this we have laws regulating behaviors in a crowded society

All I want to know is if you think restrictions on firearms ownership are reasonable in this crowded society we live in. I'm well aware of your positions on illegal drugs. You've made it perfectly clear. Please, for the love of all that is good, clarify your 2nd Amendment stance.

[A CA Guy]

"Do you have anything that doesn't come wrapped in a scumbag burrito?"

Sure, here you go and good luck, it should work out well for you!

[Know your rights]

what one considers a right, the neighbor considers and abuse of their rights.

The neighbors are wrong ... they have no "rights" regarding behavior confined to my home. Conservatives don't support inventing "rights" to expand government power; only liberals do that.

[tacticalogic]

Theocracy?

[jmc813]

I suppose that by your silence, we can assume that you support restrictions on firearms rights?

[A CA Guy]

There is nothing conservative in behavior regarding recreational illegal drug use.

[A CA Guy]

"they have no "rights" regarding behavior confined to my home."

See, you're more than likely a libertarian because you don't get it.

You think you can open your window and legally blast your radio to high heaven? Can you legally shoot off your gun in the condo? Can you jump up and down legally all night so your neighbor in the apartment below can hear you and not get any sleep the whole night?

You're completely wrong, and only if you are in a rare isolated situation can you go be the wild child you may want to be.

[A CA Guy]

"I suppose that by your silence, we can assume that you support restrictions on firearms rights?"

I sure do, there should be no target shooting in your apartments and the guns should not be used unless someone breaks into your home to do you harm.

You may not be an idiot and shoot the gun into the sky in a populated area so you can kill a neighbor as a bullet lands on their head. :-)

[Know your rights]

You think you can open your window and legally blast your radio to high heaven? Can you legally shoot off your gun in the condo? Can you jump up and down legally all night so your neighbor in the apartment below can hear you and not get any sleep the whole night?

Those actions are not confined to my home.

[68 grunt]

Give the lying hypocrites hell, Tommy.

[tacticalogic]

Awfully quiet, and back to scumbag burritos suddenly.