The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint
Beloved stoner comedian TOMMY CHONG is now older, wiser, and officially an EX-CON. On the morning of February 24, 2003, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration launched a sting called Operation Pipe Dreams and forced themselves through the door of Tommy's California home, with...
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Beloved stoner comedian TOMMY CHONG is now older, wiser, and officially an EX-CON. On the morning of February 24, 2003, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration launched a sting called Operation Pipe Dreams and forced themselves through the door of Tommy's California home, with automatic weapons drawn. As a result of the raid on his home; the simultaneous ransacking of his son's company, Chong Glass; and the Bush administration's determination to make an example out of the "Pope of Pot;" he was sentenced to nine months in prison because his company shipped bongs to a head shop in Pennsylvania that was a front for the DEA. Well . . . now it's Tommy Chong's turn to fight back and tell his side of the story. Beginning with Tommy's experiences growing up in Canada in the forties and fifties as a mixed-race kid and going on to become a comedy legend, The I Chong is at once a memoir, a spiritual exploration of his time in prison, and a political indictment of the eroding civil liberties in post-9/11 American society. He tells the unbelievable story of his trip down the rabbit hole of America's war on drugs and of his experiences in the federal prison system, and he offers up timely observations on combating the conservative political forces at work in this country. Introspective, inspiring, and incendiary, The I Chong is a unique chronicle of one man's life and how his humorous and spiritual point of view saved him during his wrongful incarceration at the hands of an administration without boundaries.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9781416947417 (1416947418)
Publish date: June 5th 2007
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pages no: 224
Edition language: English
I mostly just read this because I ran across it at the library and remembered the Cheech and Chong flicks of my youth. Parts of this are interesting and funny, and I like his outspoken condemnation of Baby Boy Bush and his cronies. An easy read.
Wow, Tommy's mad at W & the current administration. And one can see why, after reading this true story of persecution and incarceration for the crime of being pro-pot in these parlous times. Shameful, that's what it is. Chong sounds like one expects, breezy, zen, a little muddled, but good natured.