Here’s one of the millions of examples of why most of the “War on Drugs” is a horrible waste of time, money, and resources that hurts many, many more people than it helps :

Tommy Chong, who played one half of the dope-smoking duo in the Cheech and Chong movies, asked for leniency from a judge Thursday but was sentenced to nine months in prison for conspiring to sell drug paraphernalia.
. . .
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Houghton said Chong grew wealthy glamorizing drug use and trivializing law enforcement in his films of the late 1970s and early ’80s. Houghton also said Chong used the movie persona to promote his catalog and Internet business.

Chong admitted that his company, which operated as Chong Glass and employed 25 glass blowers, sold some 7,500 bongs and pipes until Feb. 14, when federal drug agents raided his California home and business. Authorities also seized about a pound of marijuana.

So they caught Chong with a pound of weed, but he’s going to jail for paraphernalia? It doesn’t make any goddamn sense that selling this kind of pipe is illegal :

But selling this kind of pipe is legal :



Hell, I’m suprised they haven’t arrested people for selling zig-zags, paperclips, and brownie mix. The absurdity of treating potheads like they’re criminal masterminds has got to stop. It looks like the British have figured this out :

Police chiefs urged their officers Friday to take a more relaxed approach to cannabis in line with a new policy that will effectively leave Britons free to enjoy the drug in private.

The guidance came as Home Secretary David Blunkett handed Parliament a draft order to downgrade the drug from Class B to the low-risk Class C to allow police to focus resources on hard drugs like heroin.
. . .
Seizures of hard drugs have reached a record high, government figures show, with heroin up 16 percent year-on-year in 2001. But cannabis still accounted for more than seven out of 10 drug seizures.

Hayman said the rationale for existing drug laws — that people who tried cannabis were often led on to harder drugs — had been disproved.

“The theory of ‘gateway’ drugs doesn’t stand up,” he said. “The evidence does not support that.”

Of course with an Attorney General who’s willing take resources away from the fight on terrorism to arrest cancer patients, I have a feeling it’ll be a while before we get some common sense reform in our nation’s drug laws.