Ex-Calgarian Chong heralds pot ban going up in smoke
One of the original ganja gurus was hoping to celebrate day one of legal weed sales in Calgary, when the curtain falls Wednesday on pot prohibition.
But Tommy Chong — who called this city home in the 1950s, until driven out by the mayor and the police chief for unruly activities — said the chances of that occurring are now hazy.
“I’m doing my best, but I lost my passport; I don’t know where it is,” Chong said, speaking on the phone from Los Angeles Tuesday.
The taller half of the Hollywood stoner duo Cheech and Chong was planning to be one of the first to purchase and sample legal weed in Calgary, joining an expected lineup at 420 Premium Market at Southland Crossing.
“It’s just historical.… It’s about time,” he said.
Despite being driven out of Calgary in 1958 over alleged subversive activities at a teen club, the comedian/actor still has a soft spot for the city.
“Calgary made me what I am.… I love Calgary,” said the star of the groundbreaking reefer comedy Up In Smoke, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year.
A big part of Chong ’s coming-ofage phase was smoking his first pot in the late 1950s, at a downtown Calgary jazz club called Flat Five.
A bass player at the club gave him a joint. “I kept mine and smoked his,” recalled Chong.
Back then, he said, it wasn’t hard to get away with toking in a sleepier, more innocent Calgary.
“I smoked pot openly in Calgary because nobody knew what pot was.… When they stopped you, the cops searched the car for beer,” said the actor, who lived on what was then the southwest edge of the city, in what’s now known as Glendale or Rosscarrock.
“We called it dogpatch; it was on the fringe. We had freedom, the cops never came.”
Chong marvels at how the tables have turned in the U.S. and Canada, 15 years after he served nine months in prison for offences surrounding marijuana paraphernalia.
Back then, authorities were determined to make an example of him, as they did Canada’s socalled Prince of Pot, Marc Emery, who was jailed for selling cannabis seeds, said Chong.
“They arrested me for transporting water pipes across state lines.… I was a PoW (prisoner of war) in the war on drugs,” said the resident of California, which legalized recreational pot last Jan. 1.
“I’ve had a taste of pot legalization, and it’s good.”
When told of Calgary’s restrictive constraints on where marijuana can be consumed, Chong cackled with a smoky rasp.
It brought back memories of a city he was ultimately happy to trade for the embrace of a more enticing Vancouver.
“It’s so Calgary — they would ban skateboards,” said Chong.
In the meantime, Chong remains busy touring with a comedy routine also starring old friend Cheech Marin.
And he had parting words for Canada’s liberation of his favourite plant: “Canada is the leader.”