Posted on 09/12/2005 4:36:47 PM PDT by 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."
Why should a specific method of consumption and the resulting efficacy of delivery of this herbs constituents have anything to do with determination of legality? Only the end results of long term effects should carry any weight. And, if we are going to do this for one food then we should for all. Say goodbye to grilled food, mushrooms, refined sugars, hydrogenated fats...
How this herb may affect the thoughts in any individual is not the purview of the Federal Government.
"I have sworn upon the altar of Almighty God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
--Thomas Jefferson
"if you were sticking a needle in your arm taking illegal drugs that Christ would be giving you a blessing"????
Myself? Maybe. Others? Some, perhaps. Most? unlikely. (off subject)
But, no DEAmen have his blessing, nor anyone advocating
such stone throwing punishment as we have today regarding
this particular gift from God and the war being waged against it.
Your position is untenable from the point of view of Christ, Prince of Peace.
Romans 14: 2-3
For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
Constitution burrito bad. Lowlife scumbag burrito good.
If you came to my home for dinner and after a nice meal, I retired to the deck for a smoke of cannabis- would you:
A - Call the police?
B - Partake of the herb?
C - Kindly tell me of my wayward behavior?
D - Etc.?
A - Call the police?
B - Partake of the herb?
C - Kindly tell me of my wayward behavior?
D - Etc.?
The answer is:
E: - Leave and not return.
First Commandment:
I am the Lord thy God and thou shall NOT have strange gods before Me.
Included worshiping the god of illegal self medication.
Still quite. When it came time to back up your canned soundbite you beat feet. Happens every time.
Sorry, that last post is for you.
I responded to that and then to someone regarding that response. Go back and read it.
Have a nice night.
U.S. House backs hate crime measure protecting gays
SEC. 602. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(6) Such violence substantially affects interstate commerce in many ways, including--
(A) by impeding the movement of members of targeted groups and forcing such members to move across State lines to escape the incidence or risk of such violence; and
(B) by preventing members of targeted groups from purchasing goods and services, obtaining or sustaining employment, or participating in other commercial activity.
(7) Perpetrators cross State lines to commit such violence.
(8) Channels, facilities, and instrumentalities of interstate commerce are used to facilitate the commission of such violence.
(9) Such violence is committed using articles that have traveled in interstate commerce.
No replies to 267 by you. In case you're simply confused, the question was why you think an argument "wrapped in a constitutional burrito" should be rejected out of hand, while your arguments that come wrapped in a lowlife scumbag burrito deserve serious consideration.
When the soundbites and "us against them" slogans run out of traction and you get down to actually answering the hard questions they get somewhere else post haste.
The answer is: E: - Leave and not return. - A CA Guy
Nice choice!
Which is better for our nation?:
A - Domestically produced cannabis
B - Smuggled foreign produced cannabis
I do appreciate your thoughtful and concise discussion.
Touche!
A CA Guy:"I am the Lord thy God and thou shall NOT have strange gods before Me. Included worshiping the god of illegal self medication."
Could you explain how the consumption of an herb becomes worship of false gods? I can tell you this though: your blindess to the word in the most easily understood of passages and insistence on surrender of personal soveriegnty to oligarchies and godless intitutions of men which stand as adversaries to the word of God is undoubtedly tantamount to the worship of false gods. Bough to them and disregard the word but know that you have no standing to admonish any other for partaking of a gift from God.
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?" --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.
Jesus taught us to Love God with all of our hearts and
to Love our brothers and sisters as we love God.
Government waging war upon its people is not Love,
particularly when it is over a gift from God.
Despite the WOD's purported good intentions
it spawns only greater discord and increased use.
Matthew 7:20
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Ouch! - Oh! - Again I shout - Touche!
If I ever need one - I want you to be my defense attorney.
I am the Lord thy God and thou shall NOT have strange gods before Me.
Included worshiping the god of illegal self medication.
I'd love to see a list of (your) perceived violations of Christian law that you would like to make U.S. federal laws against.
You disregard the Constitutional issues of your own accord and volition, no one else's actions made you do it.
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