The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint

I read this book and i could understand every thing in this book tommy chong realy let you see through his eyes and even when you think tommy is going down. He just goes and says the most funny thing. this book i read all of (and that is saying something)it is one of the most up beat book ever and it alway has you wanting to read more and more i would recomend this book to anyone you should realy read this book !!!

I'll declare this upfront: I have never been a fan of the Cheech & Chong movies, nor have I followed either of their careers in detail. I enjoy memoirs, especially those by larger-than-life characters, and I picked up The I Chong hoping for some tales of vice and an indictment of the War on Drugs. I was swept away by this deceptively short and simple book of spiritual reflections, introspection, and cultural observations about the War on Drugs and life in federal prison. It's a shame that people might avoid this book out of a distaste for pot-smoking jokes--this memoir is serious, intelligent, and witty, and Chong has been on a year-plus fast from pot-smoking. "The Joint" refers to Chong's incarceration for selling glass bongs. That's right. He was imprisoned for nine months for selling glass when the Bush Administration wanted to make an example out of a cultural pro-marijuana symbol. His straightforward, well-worded perspective on the Operation Pipe Dreams sting will make even the most straight-laced reader question the use of our government resources to pursue people like Tommy Chong. This is a book to read and share with friends and family. You don't have to be a Cheech & Chong fan, nor a pro-marijuana crusader, to glean life lessons and wisdom from this short memoir.

From the moment the book arrived in the mail I could not put it down with the exceptions of sleeping and going to work and even at work I picked it up every free second I had. Its not his schtick on pot smoking jokes but instead the man and who exactly Tommy Chong was and is. His philosophies on life are insightful and inspiring. After finishing reading it in less than 48 hours I had to picked it up a week later to read it again. Its a page turner filled life, love, good times and bad and on several occasions I found myself laughing out loud (not something I tend to do when reading). Do yourself a favor and pick up 2 copies, one for yourself and one to loan out to your friends.

The audience for this book is any "thinking" adult. I'm sure the Feds that busted him, as well as the people he portrayed in the movies will enjoy this book. You don't have to be of one camp or another... This was a very enjoyable biography. Tommy shared is youth in Canada with candor. He doesn't place blame or make excuses, but points out the way it was. His marriage is a wonderful love story that was heart warming. There are many LOL pages and some that tugged at your spirit. His love of tango dancing was a great vignette that carried through the whole story. He brings some very real issues to the table and discusses them. He thinks clearly about the war on dope, and he brings up some other topics that should also be discussed. The content gracefully touched on politics, religion, family, racism and a wide variety of subjects we should all be talking about. His incarceration is truly an embarrassment for our country, but his blame on the Republican Party shows how recently he got in this bind. This is a two party system, and they're both guilty. This has been going on for a long time. Reason Magazine (and their libertarian website) did a lot of good reporting on Tommy Chong. They discuss the stripping of our rights that have been progressing through the recent decades, and accelerated since the Patriot Act. After reading this, I would certainly love to see him do an investigative reporting type movie. Tommy could answer Michael Moore's question about why Americans shoot each other more than other well armed countries. The answer is hidden in this book.

Nice memoir by a very likeable character. He talks about the imbecilic raid on his house in the sting Operation called Operation Pipe Dream ("our doors were unlocked man -- they could have just walked right in") and his experience as a jailhouse celebrity (second only to Michael Milken for mail received). The tale of his childhood in Vancouver is also very endearing, along with the inception of Cheech and Chong, which kind of fell out of an Improv Group. It's a story of someone who's done a lot of drugs (though not as much as legend would have it) and is told with total appreciation of his life and no bitterness even towards the FBI agents who stung in. Indeed he's amused at how they solicited autographs from him while working undercover. Only Tommy Chong could call a 9 month stint in prison a ride to enjoy.