Aha! Two weeks ago my wife, best friend, and I had tickets to see Tommy Chong in “The Marijuana-Logues”, which is a 3-man theatre/comedy production spoofing “The Vagina Monologues”… OK, fine, it’s stoners on stage joking about pot. So we pull into the parking garage and are walking toward the elevator when two women approached and asked if we were going to see the Tommy Chong show. Then they told us it was cancelled.
“Oh, no, he didn’t get busted again, did he?” we asked. Later that night, when we told the news to others arriving in the garage, we got the same response.
No, he didn’t get busted, he had laryngitis. Or so the sign posted on the auditorium door said. Now we learn the truth:
MSNBC – Chong’s ‘Marijuana-Logues’ tour goes up in smoke: “The Marijuana-Logues” has canceled its spring tour after its star, Tommy Chong, was barred from performing in it because audience members were frequently lighting up during the show.
Chong, half of the comedy team Cheech & Chong, was in danger of violating his probation, which bars him from being around people using or selling illegal substances. He served nine months in prison last year for conspiring to sell drug paraphernalia.
Idiocy! Was his parole officer afraid that Chong was going to leap into the crowd and start toking a spliff? The idea of probation barring contact with drug users is to keep the “criminal” away from other “criminals” in private settings where they could get re-involved with the “crime”. He’s onstage in front of two thousand people! How much better supervision could the parole officer want?
Obviously this is less about Chong’s “criminal” past than it is a further assault on an icon of stoner culture, as a way to “send a message” to all the stoners out there. If they can lock up and silence Tommy Chong, what do you think they can do to you, Cheetos-breath?
After all, how many rock musicians on probation for drug offenses (Scott Weiland, I’m looking in your direction) are allowed to go onstage in front of tens of thousands at arena gigs, where people are undoubtedly using drugs? How many Hollywood actors are allowed back on set (his name rhymes with Bobbert Clowney, Jr.) where there is most probably some illicit drug use going on. Ah, but the lead singer of Velvet Revolver and the star of “Chaplin” aren’t living, breathing promotionals of the marijuana lifestyle, proving that you can be an out and proud stoner and still have a successful, productive career. And they never sold bongs over the internet.
This has been reason #2,952 why marijuana prohibition is ridiculous and the cause of innumerable harmful and silly unintended consequences.
