Dear Stoner: So last week you said Denver was a pretty tolerant place to light up outside of sporting events, and then pot lawyer Rob Corry gets arrested at Coors Field. What's up with that?
Para Noid
Dear Noid: Rob Corry's arrest on September 25 is a good example of exactly how you shouldn't use cannabis in public. For starters, police say he was in the smoking section of Coors Field when he lit up a stinky, smoky joint. At the very least, a one-hitter would have been a much better way to keep the obvious use down — but Corry should really get himself a vape pen if he wants to toke in public in a stealthy manner.
But the public use really wasn't the issue here. According to the report, when police asked Corry to hand over the joint, he told them that he didn't have to give it over because marijuana possession is legal in Colorado. Corry is right about possession being legal, but smoking marijuana in public isn't — and he knows that. Instead of weighing the outcomes and simply handing over the roach (much like you would have to do with an open container if caught drinking in public), he allegedly became defensive, raised a stink and began personally insulting the cops. So they arrested him for failure to comply with orders instead of simply giving him a public-use ticket and sending him on his way (as they did with the woman with whom he was toking up). We get it: That's his right, and he may even get part of his "refusing to comply with orders" charges thrown out in court — but that doesn't mean forcing a confrontation was a very bright idea, especially when it lands you in jail. As my Vietnam-vet uncle frequently says, "Not every hill is worth dying over."
Dear Stoner: Where did the bong come from?
Tubular Ted
Dear Ted: While the general theory is that water pipes developed in Asia and the word "bong" comes from the Thai word baung, according to historian John Philips in the Journal of African History, from 1983, the bong was created in Africa much earlier and then brought to Asian countries. Not only that, but Philips argues that bongs were designed specifically for cannabis smoking, as cannabis predates tobacco in Africa. Philips's theory centers on a set of eleven cannabis pipes dated to around 1100 A.D. and the 1945 discovery of a water pipe in Tanzania that was found to contain cannabis residue. He argues that Asian cultures ate cannabis rather than smoked it, and therefore the pipes were indigenous to Africa. He even theorizes that the name "bong" comes from an African tribe called the Bong'om.e
