Les Jones: Chong's Bongs Wrong?

September 18, 2003

E-commerce > Chong's Bongs Wrong?

Tommy Chong - of Cheech and Chong and That '70s Show fame - has been sentenced to 9 months in jail, a year's probation, a $20,000 fine, and forfeiture of $103,000. His crime? Selling bongs online.

Chong's Web site sold bongs and other paraphenalia over the Internet. His company and others were busted as part of Attorney General John Ashcroft's "Operation Pipe Dreams," which sounds like a good name for Cheech and Chong's next movie.

I sympathize, I really do. I think pot should be as legal as alcohol or tobacco, and there should be no laws against selling paraphenalia.

Unfortunately, there are laws against selling those things in this country. Anyone running an e-commerce business needs to be aware that they're subject to the laws of all the states they ship to, plus federal jurisdiction. The Internet isn't a badlands where the laws don't apply.

Someone once asked me about putting a football board on their web site. Not as a business, but just as a more-convenient version of the friendly board they already had with their pals. I asked them if they would put a sign in front of their store announcing they had a football board. "Of course not," they answered.

"Then don't put one online," was my response. Don't do anything on the Internet you wouldn't do in meatspace, and that includes business activities. Sure, maybe no one would care, I told this person, but if the sheriff or district attorney decided they wanted to get their names in the paper by busting someone on the Internet, all it would take was a quick Google search.

There are vast areas of untested law - online gambling and pharmacies, for instance - and an attorney general somewhere is going to make a test case out of someone's Web site. Let some other guy be the test case and not you.

Posted by lesjones

Comments

yeah i think its wrong that chong is geting a 9 month sentance for selling bongs. im doin a thesis paper on this for my english class on how this is totally wrong. andrew

Posted by: Andrew at December 11, 2003

ya man, thats bull shit they did that, ya know since other websites do it. They just did that because of his movies and they wanted a bust....total bull shit

Posted by: bev at December 09, 2005

What I'd really like to do is contact Tommy Chong, himself, either by E-mail or whatever would be acceptable. I do have the same belief's concerning marijuana---adults--right? Our bodies--right?--our right!!!##** We know better! Personally, I do still smoke a bit; does not rule my life. Not the business at hand. I have a dramatic life's story of physical abuse onto my person and Mother's; also my "father"(andI use the term, with tongue in cheek attitude)was and is ,a pedophile and I left the family home, at an early age and landed in Boston, when marijuana was still legal and did the whole protest thing against people against marijuana, in the Boston common's, in the 60's. I Felt safer on the streets and began my life's journey from here; as I did not have one before. Now I have evolved and triumphed over evil and much adversity. Here I was introduced to the ways of the streets, being a,not so innocent, 16 year old, from Fredericton,N.B. Canada. I ended up in prison, some 3 and one half years later, in Framingham, Mass. U.S.A. Wasn.t so bad, considering what I left at home. *****I have written a complete book and want to put it to Film; in order to help people, with my story. It is a winner from the first paragraph! I am no slouch; I am an artist, a sculptor, a writer, botanist, a philosopher and a singer and a very intellingent being; highest I.Q., they ever seen; I am not bragging, only stating the facts. ****I am a straight shootin'; no fuss, no muss, kind of gal. I have "0" tolerance for disrespect, of any kind!! I guard my life's work, with my life; as it is my life and I want someone, I can trust, to help Produce my book to T.V.Movie. Please reply and see if I can possibly have an e-mail address of Tommy Chong's; if he would be so kind to consider and or speak to me. Thank you for your time . Sincerely, Linda Rosilee M. Rayner

Posted by: Linda R. M. Rayner at September 25, 2006

Comments on the old blog are closed.