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."
"Know your rights" is throwing every liberal debating trick in the book at you.
Stay cool.
Their funny, I sometimes go over to DU to see what they posted about their beloved illegal drugs.
That's the argument.
These people are insane.
Fixed that for you, you're welcome.
And I notice you didn't give the basis for your assertion that:"Chong would probably died already without law enforcement intervention. " In other words, you do follow the standard drug warrior tactic of "argument by making crap up." And you didn't respond to the question of exactly what Tommy Chong did that he should have gone to Federal prison for.
And, if you pretend to be a conservative, do you believe that the Federal government should be limited in its authority and powers to those enumerated in the Constitution?
If so, please point out the article giving the Federal government the power to fight a "War on Drugs," and arrest people for possessing and selling drugs and "paraphernalia?" If the government has no such Constitutionally authorized power, doesn't that make the DEA and other "drug warriors" equivalent to any other criminal gang, and shouldn't they be the ones arrested and imprisoned?
Why is uncouthness in a privately-owned establishment any business of yours, or of the people or their representatives?
This, after you try to pass off "not at liberty to break the law"? That's that kind of crap I expect Jim Carville or Bill Clinton to try and pass off as an argument. Jeez, get a clue.
Can you add me to your list?
Thanks
mcar
As bad as many of the drugs you want to be illegal ... so why won't you explain why you don't want that drug to be illegal, instead of you squirming, dodging, and evading in classic Bill Clinton style?
Issue = Business where the public has access.
What you do in your home is more your own business, but if you drink lots while caring for the child or expose them to smoke, you might get problems as well.
These people are insane.
Which part of that statement do you claim is incorrect?
A certain level of civility is maintained by law to maintain something called a civilization.
No conservative drinks alcohol?
Okay, I'll buy a clue.
When are you "at liberty to break the law" as opposed to "not at liberty to break the law?"
The businesses are accessing the public in openly public areas, if they were instead having a party in their house, they could of course have a smoking party.
You may have a smoking party of your own as long as it isn't illegal stuff you are smoking.
Why does giving the public conditional access to your property lessen your right to say what's allowed or not allowed on that property? Sounds like socialism to me.
If they drink in excess? That can be a problem, yes and I would say if done regularly they do have a major problem.
They are operating in the public arena and this is beyond the issue of living a private life.
The public has the right to a certain level of civility in their civilization.
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