Up in Smoke: Cheech & Chong’s Battle with Hemp Products
If there’s one thing Cheech and Chong know how to do, it’s getting high and getting in trouble. For decades, these two have been the undisputed jesters of cannabis culture—rolling joints the size of baseball bats, outmaneuvering clueless cops, and giving us all something to laugh about in the haze of prohibition. But this time, the trouble they’ve landed in isn’t slapstick. It’s the cold, bureaucratic reality of a government hellbent on defining what should and shouldn’t be considered “legal” cannabis.
It started in California, where Governor Gavin Newsom pulled a fast one on the hemp industry, banning all hemp products containing any detectable amount of THC. The reasoning? Protecting the children, of course. Because apparently, a hemp-derived gummy was the biggest existential threat facing the state, not the fentanyl crisis, unaffordable housing, or rolling blackouts. Newsom’s crackdown effectively kneecapped an entire sector overnight, leaving businesses scrambling and customers confused.
And just like that, Cheech and Chong—cannabis’s most iconic duo—found themselves in a courtroom battle rather than a smoke circle. Their company, alongside the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, took legal action against California’s Department of Public Health, arguing that the state had overstepped its bounds. The lawsuit contends that the sudden, sweeping ban wasn’t just bad policy, it was an existential threat to small cannabis businesses. After all, banning hemp products with any trace of THC is like banning soda for containing sugar—it’s in the very nature of the thing.
But this isn’t Tommy Chong’s first rodeo. The man once did nine months in federal prison for selling bongs. The government called it “Operation Pipe Dreams” (yes, really), a nationwide crackdown on glass pipes that was about as useful as banning pizza cutters to fight obesity. Chong was the sacrificial lamb back then, and now, decades later, the authorities are once again looking for someone to make an example of.
Meanwhile, in New Mexico…
As if Cheech and Chong’s legal headaches weren’t enough, their branded products have found themselves at the center of a local controversy in New Mexico. An investigation by Larry Barker uncovered that The Grass Station, a shop in Albuquerque, was selling pre-packaged flower under the Cheech and Chong “Blazers” brand—except it was labeled as THCA.
For the uninitiated, THCA is the raw, non-psychoactive form of the good stuff. The moment you hit it with heat—say, from a lighter—it transforms into exactly what most people are looking for. It’s a legal gray area that’s been exploited across the country, but in New Mexico, where the market is fully regulated, the bigger question isn’t whether THCA is legal. It’s whether someone was mislabeling a standard product or repurposing old packaging in a way that could mislead customers.
A Matter of Compliance
Here’s where things get messy. New Mexico’s rules require products to be labeled accurately, with clear potency information and compliant packaging. Any deviation—whether intentional or not—can lead to serious consequences.
For The Grass Station, selling a misbranded product could mean fines, or worse, the loss of their license. For FCI, the company behind Cheech and Chong’s branded products, the situation raises even bigger concerns. As a licensed manufacturer, they’re supposed to be the ones setting the standard, ensuring that everything leaving their facility is by the book. If they’re caught playing fast and loose with labels, it could put their entire operation at risk.
The Bigger Question
This whole ordeal—California’s hemp ban, the THCA flower in New Mexico—reveals a deeper struggle. The industry is evolving, but the fight isn’t just between law enforcement and those trying to make a living. It’s between those who operate within the strict boundaries of regulation and those who are finding creative ways to work around them.
Hemp-derived products have exploded in popularity, offering a legal loophole for people in states with stricter laws. The regulated market, on the other hand, operates under intense scrutiny, heavy taxation, and layers of compliance that make even the simplest business decisions a bureaucratic nightmare.
And so, the question remains: is it fair for the regulated industry to shut out the hemp industry?
