Tommy Chong was on the Tonight Show Friday night. Jay Leno seemed genuinely stunned and outraged that Tommy had served 9 months in jail for basically loaning his name to his son’s bong business. Tommy and Jay both expressed bewilderment that it was even against the law to sell bongs. Jay kept asking how could an inanimate object be against the law just because it could possibly be used to smoke pot. He made reference to the fact that he owned motorcycles that could go 170 miles an hour, but that wouldn’t be against the law unless he actually used them for that.

Apparently a head shop in Pittsburgh that was taken over by the DEA ordered a bong (or 2) from the Chong Bong company featuring Tommy’s smiling face on the bowl. Therefore he was guilty of committing a felony across state lines according to the feds in Pittsburgh. Law enforcement officials in California were as bewildered as anybody else that this was against the law. Jay asked, “Isn’t this entrapment?” Poor naive Jay, has no idea what happens every day in the wonderful world of the War on Drugs.

Tommy said he was persuaded to plead guilty by the threat that his son and wife would be charged. As so often happens in law enforcement these days, it was this threat that persuaded Tommy to plead guilty rather than to fight for his rights. He had to fall on his sword to protect his family.

Tommy actually seemed to be in pretty good shape. He laughed a lot when talking about his days in jail, describing how fun it is to sleep with 30 other guys who are constantly farting and snoring.

At the end, surprisingly, Cheech Marin came out at the end. Together they announced that they were indeed making a new Cheech and Chong movie.

This brings me to a couple of other examples of how justice works in America today. As most of you know, the owner of Psilocybe Fanaticus was busted last year. It is supposedly not against the law to sell Psilocybe mushroomkits and spores, but the feds charged him with conspiracy to manufacture drugs, which is a major crime. Eventually he agreed to plead guilty to cultivation of mushrooms, in exchange for sparing his wife and daughter from being charged. Doesn’t that legal tactic sound familiar!!

Read Fanaticus’ own account of the whole ordeal at his website:

www.fanaticus.com

It’s quite enjoyable really, and he is a great guy.