'Up In Smoke'

I was not born until long after Cheech and Chong's magnum opus Up in Smoke was released. And it was another 18 years after I was born until I entered some phase of acknowledgement towards illegal drugs.

Therefore, it's quite impossible for me to comment upon the ideas and perceptions of illegal drugs in the 1970s. I would only assume two things:

1. That despite the end of the 1960s and the hippie thing, that drugs were still very much a fringe thing, widely unaccepted among most mainstream folks.

2. That Up in Smoke was the first film that was almost solely about drug use and painted at lease a semi-positive portrait of drug takers.

I would thus presume that Up in Smoke was pretty seminal toward making recreational illegal drug use -- or at least marijuana use -- semi-acceptable even to many squares and old ladies. Or maybe it was just going to be a typical transition over time.

I'd still like to think that Cheech and Chong helped changed the perception that marijuana use caused egregious maniacal and lascivious behavior. But, instead, made everyone kind of dumb.

This, we decided, wasn't as bad as we think and now marijuana will probably be legalized some time in my lifetime.

All thanks to Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong.