Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 2009
Source: Northern River Echo, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2009 TAOW P/L
Contact:  http://www.echonews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4736

EX-COP UP IN SMOKE BUT CHONG STILL SMOKIN'

Nimbin MardiGrass organisers are confident that at  least half of the 
American comedy duo Cheech and Chong  will be in attendance at this 
year's marijuana law  reform festival.

Tommy Chong and his partner Richard 'Cheech' Marin  built their 
careers portraying archetypal stoners in  the 1970s and 80s, making 
several films including Up In  Smoke and Still Smokin'. In 2003 Tommy 
Chong's company  Chong's Glass was raided by American federal police 
and  he pleaded guilty to distributing drug paraphernalia.  He was 
sentenced to nine months jail and fined $20,000.

Their Australian reunion tour is scheduled to finish in  Brisbane the 
day before MardiGrass starts.

"It's too coincidental and too cosmic for him not to  come. Tommy is 
a big supporter of cannabis law reform,"  festival organiser Michael 
Balderstone said.

He said Tommy probably wasn't going to perform in  Nimbin, but he had 
indicated he would like to be a  judge at the Cheech and Chong 
look-a-like competition.

One of the festival's key speakers, former undercover  narcotics 
officer with the New Jersey State Police Jack  Cole, has withdrawn 
from the festival. Mr Cole is now  executive director of LEAP (Law 
Enforcement Against  Prohibition), a non-profit organisation with 
10,000  former and current police officers and government  agents 
opposed to the 'War on Drugs'.

Mr Balderstone said he was disappointed Jack Cole  couldn't make it 
to MardiGrass, but said he was due to  come out in late May or early 
June and hoped something  could be organised with him at that time.

Other activities planned for the festival include the  Marijuana 
Music Awards, Pot Poetry, Medical Cannabis  and Industrial Hemp 
Forums and, of course, the Hemp  Olympix. There will also be an 
international forum on  cannabis reconciliation on Saturday, May 2. A 
panel of international activists will discuss how their  countries 
have managed to get around prohibition in a  compassionate way.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart