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07/14/2004 Archived Entry: "Bongs, seeds, Attitude, and freedom"

JIM BOVARD COVERS OPERATION PIPE DREAMS, among the many other things in his new book The Bush Betrayal. You remember, that's the fed program in which Mr. Ashcroft and some 1,200+ minions (figuring terrorists needed a break) went after those deadly menaces to society: bongs and those who purvey them.

Operation Pipe Dreams' most famous catch was Tommy Chong, whose fanciful art-glass bongs even appeared in galleries. The G-Men swooped down on that 64-year-old artist/commedian in his bed -- helicopters, full-auto weapons, the usual JBT routine -- and eventually hauled him off to federal prison and fleeced him for something in the vicinity of $120,000, not to mention his business.

I'll pause while you breathe a sigh of relief about how much safer you feel now.

Anyway, after reading Jim's sharp-witted account of Operation Pipe Dreams, I Googled to see what was left of the bong business. Naively, I was expecting to find a lot of dead URLs and a furtive few sites offering "novelty water pipes for your tobacco-smoking (wink, nudge) pleasure." I mean, who would dare be selling B-O-N-G-S with John Ashcroft and his fiery sword personally bringing the wrath of some rather perverse god down on you?

HA! I Googled right in to sites like GrassCity.com. Hundreds of bongs, vaporizers, rolling papers. You name it. And a serious absence of euphemisms or furtiveness.

And then I continued Googling into Marijuana.com, where you can not only get advice on growing your own cannabis crop, but buy the seeds.

So maybe that's where the most recent crop of marijuana monkeywrenchers got their stuff.

Or how about potseed purveyor Ganja.com? It's a lovely site where they sell dozens and dozens of varieties of cannabis seeds. And mushroom spores, besides. That one was recommended by a friend who knows the founder. Ganja.com even has a seed wizard to help you choose whether you want cannabis sativa, cannabis indica, or some blend, foreign or domestic, budget-minded or pricey. And it's all delivered in a manner as civil and straightforward as any other thoughtful Web-based business.

I love it. You really can't keep a good market down.

Posted by Claire @ 12:21 PM CST
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