Cheech & Chong's War On Drugs

For decades now the revered comedy duo Cheech & Chong — Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong to the taxman — have personified so much more than mere funnymen, basically coming to embody the counter-culture for generations of likeminded fans (and the more straight-laced among us as well). Their fierce anti-authoritarian bent pervaded everything they touched, whether it be their stand-up routines, their best-selling albums or even the numerous films that they wrote, starred in and even directed. They became infamous for their pro-drug stance — Chong in particular becoming a strong marijuana advocate — to the point that the pair are almost synonymous with pot; they’re certainly for many the most famous stoners on the planet.

Cheech & Chong experienced their highest profile, and produced the bulk of their best work together, during the ‘70s and ‘80s when the counter-culture was looked down upon by most of society. Back then they were deemed ‘outsiders’, but now in these more permissive times — after decades spent apart following an acrimonious falling out — they’ve recently reunited to breathe life (and presumably smoke) into their best-known comedic routines, hitting Australia for ‘Up In Smoke — The Greatest Hits Tour’.  

"We’ve always been cutting edge, especially when it came to marijuana and anything to do with pot. Or, you know, acid, pot..."

“We’re getting close to the end of the road, so every day and every show we do seems really special — it’s no longer a job, it’s a privilege,” offers the affable Chong in that most distinctive of drawls. “Everybody’s kinda catching up with us — we’ve always been cutting edge, especially when it came to marijuana and anything to do with pot. Or, you know, acid, pot — the whole ‘60s subculture. Now it’s all above board — it’s become legal all around America, and pretty soon the world. So we’re just as popular — if not more popular — than ever before.”

Even in these relatively liberal times where awareness of drugs is far more prevalent, there’s still a need for anti-authoritarian voices in popular culture.

“Yeah, although we always got along with the police — we never had a problem with them — because Cheech’s dad was a cop for years, and as I’ve always said we have respect for the cops, they have a tough job,” Cheech continues. “But I also realise that if the law is wrong it’s wrong, and no matter how you justify it it’s not going to make it right. We’ve always been on that cutting edge where we espoused how marijuana is healthy for you and it shouldn’t be demonised and that’s one of the reasons we’re still popular.”  

With recreational marijuana use now legal in some American states, and medicinal marijuana legality even more widespread, it must seem to Chong that although the war’s not won, the counter-culture has certainly scored some substantial victories in recent times?

“Well the war is won, it’s just that the straight people don’t want to admit it,” he asserts. “It’s just like the electric car is taking over, yet we still have gas cars all over the world — they’ll be phased out eventually, but that’s the way it is. That’s the way that humanity has always been, there’s always been someone that’s very far ahead and someone that’s lagging behind. Unfortunately the lagging behind people seem to be the majority, but we’re getting there. We’re winning, we’re slowly winning.”

Chong was even jailed in 2003 for selling “drug-related paraphernalia” but this didn’t curtail his pro-weed advocacy in the slightest. Is it exciting for him that all the advocacy and hard work is starting to pay off?

“You can make so much money in the straight world if you have a straight product to sell and the police aren’t going to put you in jail for it, so it’s incredible,” he laughs. “The worst thing about pot before was the jail time. Take that out of the equation and it’s a beautiful world.”

Has there been much backlash in the States to this loosening of drug laws? Has the ‘straight population’ been fighting back?

"White people are eventually going to be endangered species.”

“Not really, no,” Chong tells. “In fact it’s the opposite — it’s so outdated to be a racist, and it really was a racist law. It gave the bigots an excuse to demonise brown people and black people and hippies to the point where they could throw them in jail and throw all of the troubles of the world onto them. But those days are changing, and the minorities have become the majority — especially in America, where your second language has to be Spanish. We’re going back to Mexico and it’s changing everything. White people are eventually going to be endangered species.”

This change in attitude towards marijuana’s legal standing seems to be filtering over to Australia (albeit slowly). Not only is de-criminalisation discussed openly in polite circles these days, but even the notoriously conservative state of Queensland recently announced trials for medicinal cannabis, a turn of events which would have been unthinkable only five years ago.

“Especially when you find out that it cures cancer, and in Australia it will treat skin cancer,” Chong smiles. “With that melanoma that’s going around in Australia like crazy amongst the white people, you put hemp oil on it and it goes away. When they discover that, then you’re going to see some serious changes going on with the law. It’s a medicine. It’s been a medicine for thousands of years, and you don’t have to do anything to it — you just have to dry it out. You don’t even have to dry it if you don’t want to, you can just pick it and use it — it’s that accessible — and to have it illegal is crazy. We’re going to be part of history — they’re going to look back and they won’t be able to believe it. Just like they won’t be able to believe that we didn’t always have cell phones. There’s going to be a whole generation who look at their grandparents and say, ‘You never had a cell phone? I can’t believe that, that’s ridiculous’.”

Speaking of casting an eye back over history, what about the halcyon days of Cheech & Chong — looking at accounts of their adventures it almost seems as if the pair were more like rock stars than comedians?

“We actually were like rock stars, because we had music records on the charts,” Chong recounts. “We had [1974 single] Earache My Eye on there for a while, and we had [1973’s] Basketball Jones, we had [1973’s] Sister Mary Elephant — we had all of these great AM or FM radio bits that people played all the time, like [famous skit] Dave’s Not Here. We had a whole history of radio, and Cheech & Chong’s voices were the first voices that a lot of young eight-year-olds heard — they had to ask their mothers what the hell we were talking about, but still… We were definitely not your run-of-the-mill comedians, we had a lot of stuff going for us and we still do.”

There’s famous tales of the playing with The Rolling Stones and partying with The Beatles — not even many huge bands got to experience brushes with that kind of royalty.

“Well yeah, a lot of bands today look at us and see us as icons — they think, ‘Wow, these guys have been there and done that’,” Chong offers proudly. “Working with the Stones was awesome. In fact I was in Canada — it was Vancouver — and I had a nightclub, this after hours club which was a soul club; very black and very hip. This was at a low ebb in The Rolling Stones’ career — they’d been hot and been on Ed Sullivan, and then they cooled off, I think Hendrix and The Beatles had sort of overshadowed them — and Mick and the boys were playing at a club upstairs from my club; it was like a hippy circus kind of club, and I had a soul club downstairs. James Brown was in town and all of James Brown’s band came down to jam in our club, and the club was packed beyond capacity — you couldn’t get anyone else in physically, it was a small club anyway — and there were literally like a thousand people trying to get in the one little club, and I was onstage and I could see Ron Wood and Keith Richards trying to get in the club, but James my brother, who had no idea who The Rolling Stones were, was on the door and he’s going, ‘There’s no room, I’m sorry but you can’t get in!’ And I remember the Stones guys waving at me, like, ‘We’re The Rolling Stones, c’mon, let us in!’ but I couldn’t do anything because the club was oversold! Then a few years later Mick and boys are selling out baseball stadiums, it was crazy.”

"I got turned down by Rod Stewart and John Lennon at the same time.”

Plus Chong smoked weed with (or in front of) three of the four Beatles, and still holds hopes to complete the whole set.

“That’s right, all of The Beatles except Paul — I haven’t met Paul yet. And it’s so funny, because he’s the biggest pothead out of all of them!” he chuckles. “I’d see George a lot, George and I became friends and I’d see him quite a bit because we hung out in the same circles. And when I saw Ringo he was in rehab — he was drying out from his alcohol problem. And I met John at a party at Lou Adler’s house in Hollywood, and he was sitting on the floor in this bedroom — I went into this bedroom trying to find a place to get high, and I looked down and there’s John Lennon sitting on the floor. So I lit the joint and I offered John a toke, and John had to turn it down — he said that he had immigration problems so he wasn’t getting high then. And then Rod Stewart walked in, and he went straight over to the mirror and started fluffing his hair up, and I offered him a toke and he turned it down too because of his voice — so I got turned down by Rod Stewart and John Lennon at the same time.”

Oh well, that probably just means more spliff for Tommy.

“Yeah,” he laughs. “It wasn’t very good weed anyway, it was kind of kind of stinky, flat kinda weed.”

Speaking of weed quality, Chong is in a pretty good position to either confirm or deny the oft-espoused views that marijuana quality has changed over the decades — is weed really much stronger these days than it was back in the flower power years?

“Well yeah, it’s gotten refined,” he explains. “Back in the day you smoked everything — the weed, the stems, the seeds, dirt; whatever they could put in it to make it weigh more, like sugar. But now you’re getting the pure flower, the bud. The thing is that now you don’t need to smoke as much to get high — these days I smoke a tiny little one-hitter thing, and then I can function. If you smoke any more you end up falling asleep. At least I do.”

In recent years the legacy left by Cheech & Chong seems to be growing rather than diminishing: they had prominent roles in episodes of both The Simpsons and South Park and still pop up all over popular culture in many guises — is it cool being acknowledged by younger generations in this manner?

“Oh yeah, oh yeah, it’s just an honour to be recognised by more people than just the old Cheech & Chong fans,” Chong reflects. “I’ve ended up being on all sorts of radio shows — right-wing radio shows — because I’m so outspoken that they love me. And it creates good drama, with good conflict everywhere. I love my position in life now — the only thing is that I haven’t been knighted like Paul. I would like to be Sir Chong. Even Mick got knighted! I think Keith Richards called him a wanker for taking it, but I wouldn’t mind being knighted. Sir Chong,” he daydreams, before turning his attention to the impending Australian sojourn.

"Back in the day you smoked everything — the weed, the stems, the seeds, dirt."

“Oh yeah, I love Australia — I love it,” he states unreservedly. “If there was a place I could live outside of LA it would be Australia, I just love it. It’s so diverse and so interesting, and if you get bored with one place then you hop on a place and go to another city and it’s totally different! I love it. And you’ve got some of the most beautiful women on the planet, so you’re in good shape. It’s the hot weather — it makes girls wear less clothes, and they have to look good so they’re in good shape. I love the beach and I love the way it makes girls look.”

Finally, what about the mooted plans for the pair to make Up In Smoke 2, the follow-up to their first — and most well-loved — film from way back in 1982?

“Yeah there is plans — in fact we’re in the middle of getting a script written right now,” Chong tells. “It’s coming along really good — really, really, really good. Cheech and I had our differences for a while there, but now he’s onboard because there’s nothing else going on. It’s going to be really good, just a grumpy old stoner kinda thing.