The Famous Comedian Who Claims George Bush Had Him Arrested For Political Purposes

It's no secret that famous comedian Tommy Chong, one half of the duo Cheech & Chong, has a particular affinity for marijuana. He's a major contributor to the culture surrounding the drug and has often advocated for its legalization. However, Chong's love of weed landed him in hot water in 2003, when he was sentenced to nine months in prison for selling bongs and other paraphernalia over the internet. What's more, Chong says he knows who's responsible for getting him sent to the joint — former United States President George W. Bush.

"They had a hit on me. The Bush family," Chong claimed during a 2024 appearance on Bill Maher's "Club Random" podcast (via Newsweek). He went on to claim that since President Bush "was invading Iraq" at the time, he and his administration — in Chong's words — "needed some sort of hippie b*******" to turn people's attention toward. "So they attacked me, and they sentenced me on 9/11," the comedian continued, asserting that the presiding judge "had a reputation of doing whatever the Bush people wanted done. And so that's why he was given my thing." Chong concluded, "They needed a face for their campaign because they were going after paraphernalia on the internet."

Surprisingly, even though Chong believes that George Bush is the one who orchestrated his arrest and subsequent prison sentence, he doesn't harbor any ill will toward the former president. That said, he describes the whole experience as "a life changer."

As it turns out, Tommy Chong wasn't particularly broken up about being sent to federal prison in 2003. "Jail was the defining moment in my life," he wrote in his 2006 book, "The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint." "It was a very special time; it was a very special event that I thoroughly enjoyed. I had one bad half hour the whole time, one bad half hour. In fact, my lawyer couldn't believe how upbeat I was after I got sentenced. ... To me it was like I was destined to do this; this was destiny. The comedian added that "even though my bust was political in every sense of the word," he still benefited from getting an attitude adjustment.

One year before that interview, though, Chong confessed to Newsweek that his prison sentence "was devastating to my family, especially my wife." He, on the other hand, had "quite a nice experience" overall. After all, Chong certainly had things to keep him amused in the big house — none the least of which being the fact that he shared a cell with infamous stockbroker Jordan Belfort, whom Leonardo DiCaprio would go on to play in the Oscar-nominated Martin Scorsese picture "The Wolf of Wall Street" a decade after the fact. "He'd come back from playing tennis, and I'd crack up, man, because we're in f****** jail," Chong recalled in a 2013 interview with New York Magazine. He added that "the Quaalude stories" Belfort would tell were his "favorite."