Tommy Chong Revealed that He has Prostate Cancer; New York's Governor Proposed to Lower the penalties for Possession of Marijuana
LEMON: Time now for "Sunday night mysteries" and in our mysteries a massive dock washes up on an Oregon beach, but where did it come from? For a while it was unclear, but now we know. It was ripped from its moorings during Japan's tsunami last year. The 60-foot long, 132-ton structure washed ashore on Monday. Oregon officials are now taking bids to salvage or demolish it. Dozens of credible radio signals that were once dismissed may hold major clues to solving what happened to aviator Amelia Earhart. An historic aircraft recovery -- recovery group made the claim during a conference in D.C. The group believes transmissions were made after Earhart landed the plane on a remote island in the western pacific. Well, Earhart vanished during her attempt to fly around the world almost 75 years ago. The recovery group believes her remains are on that island. This weekend we have been tackling the marijuana issue and the laws that govern it. New York's governor has proposed lowering the penalties for possession because he says those penalties run fair. Now, what would happen if we made pot legal? What if he made it legal? What if we sold it and regulated it? One expert says we're missing the money train by not doing so.</s>DR. JON GETTMAN, SHENANDOAH UNIVERSITY, CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROFESSOR: The U.S. government estimates 17 million pounds of marijuana grown each year in the U.S., $3,000 a pound, $50 billion industry. Just domestically grown marijuana. Just leave aside what's brought in from overseas. Now, all that money that's spent on it is money that is not generating tax revenue, not being spent at the local grocery store, local hardware store, on cars or boats or what have you. It is not generating any tax income whatsoever. That alone is costing state, local, federal government, $15 billion, $17 billion a year in tax revenue, and that is not even counting what the excise tax would be if it were legal. Now, if it were legal, the price would drop tremendously. And it is hard to do an estimate of how much tax revenue it would generate, but it would be in the billions of dollars. It would be considerable, and also it would stop this hemorrhaging money out of the legitimate economy and that allow would increase tax revenue considerably for local government</s>LEMON: Then I sat down with sit with iconic actor Tommy Chong about states loosening their law on marijuana possession. The conversation had a light moment but not before he dropped a bomb telling everybody here for the first time on this show that he was diagnosed with cancer.</s>CHONG: I was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a month ago, and I'm going to start treating it with cannabis oil or hemp oil or pot oil, and -- and if -- and the reason I am treating it with hemp oil is because I look at a video just recently called run from the cure by Rick Simpson, and it documents how he cured his melanoma cancer by using hemp oil.</s>LEMON: You believe that -- you think you -- you got prostate cancer in prison after, you know, the paraphernalia and the company and the internet company selling the bong. This is in 2003. You think you got it in prison, why?</s>CHONG: That's my feeling, because I was totally healthy when I was in jail and I hadn't smoked pot before I went in jail, and then while I was in jail I was as clean as a whistle because they drug- tested me almost every single day. And I started having problems with my prostate. Right there, I remember very well, because when you have problems you have to get up in the middle of the night and pee a lot, and then I also contacted gout while I was in prison from the food. And so, I think there's a combination of the food and the fact that the prison itself of Taft, California, is built over the toxic waste dump and they have a thing there called valley fever that other prisoners were getting, and they don't neo-know what it was, some sort of wasting disease, so I think that -- I think I got it there.</s>LEMON: Yes. we should tell, you haven't smoked pot in how long? People think you're a pothead and you haven't smoked in --</s>CHONG: I laid off for about a year, you know, and when I started getting kind of weird health issues, you know, which actually turned out to be prostate cancer. And so I -- I did everything. I'm a very holistic person who went on the juices and everything, you know. No red meat and the whole bit, and so -- but now that I found out that the hemp oil will help the prostate, hey, I'm back, man. The only thing they can really blame Bob for is it made you crazy in like reefer madness, and I agree with that part. You know, it's really -- you know what's weird now is that because I'm taking it as a medicine. And I also played golf, so I took the medicine early one morning, and I got really stoned, and I -- I went to the golf range and I couldn't play. I couldn't hit the ball. I felt like I never picked up the club before and it was weird, because here, I'm Tommy Chong, you're supposed to be able to do everything stoned and I couldn't hit the ball once. It was sad. Well, it makes some people crazy. It makes - I mean, it makes you do weird things, like there was a policeman who ate a brownie, and he phoned 911 and told 911 that he was a police officer that he ate a pot brownie and that he was going crazy. And the fact that he phoned 911 and kind of ratted himself out was a good indication that he probably was going to go crazy. It does affect you mentally, you know. Pot does, and there's no way around that part, you know, and it affects some people spiritually, like myself, for instance, you know. I've really gotten into the spiritual world deep, thanks to my ingestion of the magic weed.</s>LEMON: All right. Incredible pictures from the gulf coast that we're going to tell you about now. Parts of Florida literally under water and so was this man, the man that I'm going to tell you about coming up. Hear how he survived.