T
The420Guy
Guest
The gumshoes of the Justice Department must love Tommy Chong, the aging
comedian/actor who until recently had a business making expensive
blown-glass bongs. That's bongs, not bombs. Chong was sentenced Thursday to
nine months in federal prison for sending one of those art-glass smoking
devices across state lines. Unlike terror suspects or bomb makers, Chong
was easy to find (a home in Pacific Palisades and a business in Gardena)
and posed no threat of violence.
The same goes for the smokers and growers of medical marijuana in
California, many of them slowed down by AIDS or cancer or even confined to
wheelchairs. The state's voters approved medical marijuana use in 1996.
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft makes a credible case that some drug abusers wrap
themselves in the cloak of "medical" use and that sellers of paraphernalia
aid the abuse. Even so, that doesn't justify a heavy-handed federal law
enforcement campaign against Chong and other small fry.
Chong most recently had a recurring role on Fox TV's "That '70s Show." With
former partner Cheech Marin, he made a handful of silly movies including
1978's "Up in Smoke," and cut numerous Cheech and Chong comedy records of
social comment and dope humor. Too bad Chong, 65, evidently didn't know
when to leave the past behind him.
It's unlikely that Chong would have received a nine-month prison sentence
in California. Federal prosecutors in June had requested a 6 1/2-year
sentence for Ed Rosenthal, known as the king of Northern California medical
marijuana growers. The presiding district judge gave him one day, time
served. Chong's work was displayed last year at a Silver Lake art gallery
without any law enforcement interest. But a Chong bong had turned up in
Pennsylvania, the headquarters of a Justice Department crackdown on
paraphernalia purveyors, so he was sentenced by a federal judge there.
A federal prosecutor in the case acknowledged that Chong, who had no
criminal record, "wasn't the biggest supplier [of paraphernalia]. He was a
relatively new player. But he had the ability to market products like no
other." And to make headlines.
Ashcroft's predecessor, Janet Reno, tried to intimidate doctors who
recommended marijuana for pain relief or appetite stimulation. But Ashcroft
revived and expanded what amounts to a picayune crusade.
Measured against the war on terror, the crusade is a misuse of resources.
The upside is that perhaps it will keep prosecutors too busy to examine
library records for seditious reading under the USA Patriot Act.
Los Angeles Times
September 13, 2003
comedian/actor who until recently had a business making expensive
blown-glass bongs. That's bongs, not bombs. Chong was sentenced Thursday to
nine months in federal prison for sending one of those art-glass smoking
devices across state lines. Unlike terror suspects or bomb makers, Chong
was easy to find (a home in Pacific Palisades and a business in Gardena)
and posed no threat of violence.
The same goes for the smokers and growers of medical marijuana in
California, many of them slowed down by AIDS or cancer or even confined to
wheelchairs. The state's voters approved medical marijuana use in 1996.
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft makes a credible case that some drug abusers wrap
themselves in the cloak of "medical" use and that sellers of paraphernalia
aid the abuse. Even so, that doesn't justify a heavy-handed federal law
enforcement campaign against Chong and other small fry.
Chong most recently had a recurring role on Fox TV's "That '70s Show." With
former partner Cheech Marin, he made a handful of silly movies including
1978's "Up in Smoke," and cut numerous Cheech and Chong comedy records of
social comment and dope humor. Too bad Chong, 65, evidently didn't know
when to leave the past behind him.
It's unlikely that Chong would have received a nine-month prison sentence
in California. Federal prosecutors in June had requested a 6 1/2-year
sentence for Ed Rosenthal, known as the king of Northern California medical
marijuana growers. The presiding district judge gave him one day, time
served. Chong's work was displayed last year at a Silver Lake art gallery
without any law enforcement interest. But a Chong bong had turned up in
Pennsylvania, the headquarters of a Justice Department crackdown on
paraphernalia purveyors, so he was sentenced by a federal judge there.
A federal prosecutor in the case acknowledged that Chong, who had no
criminal record, "wasn't the biggest supplier [of paraphernalia]. He was a
relatively new player. But he had the ability to market products like no
other." And to make headlines.
Ashcroft's predecessor, Janet Reno, tried to intimidate doctors who
recommended marijuana for pain relief or appetite stimulation. But Ashcroft
revived and expanded what amounts to a picayune crusade.
Measured against the war on terror, the crusade is a misuse of resources.
The upside is that perhaps it will keep prosecutors too busy to examine
library records for seditious reading under the USA Patriot Act.
Los Angeles Times
September 13, 2003