Tommy Chong arrived in Pueblo, Colorado on Friday to experience the state's new marijuana laws, which allows commercial sales for all users. "It makes me feel really vindicated," said Chong. "Everything I stood for. Everything I went to jail for. Everything I believed in and the means of my existence was all based around marijuana."
Chong spent nine months in federal prison in 2003 after he was convicted of interstate paraphernalia sales.
He visited Marisol Therapeutics at 922 Kimble Dr. in Pueblo West (100 miles due south of Denver). "It’s a very historical site and I picked probably the best grower in Colorado (Marisol owner Mike Stetler), which would make him pretty close to being one of the top growers of the world," Chong told media that flocked to the store to catch his appearance.
“This is one small stagger for a stoner and one giant leap for stonerkind," he joked. "I just had a feeling that this would be a good place to be on the first few days of legalization in America… There was no riots. There was no fighting. There was nothing but love and money… Look how we make money; by growing a beautiful plant in controlled circumstances, so you can grow enough to feed the masses and then distribute it out, and with that money coming back in to help schools and help the roads and help infrastructure… I am very humbled by the turnout. I mean, I knew I was popular. I don’t know if it’s me or the weed, but somebody brought a lot of people here today."
Legal sales of marijuana for recreational use began, with great fanfare, in Colorado on Jan. 1. Voters there legalized it in 2012.
