“Do you want Doritos?”
“After this puff,” said one Park Forest police officer to another before breaking into a healthy chuckle inside a compact sedan billowing with nonsensical amounts of smoke.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the part-public service announcement, part-Cheech and Chong parody has been viewed over 18 million times.
The video, which stars two cops disguised in fake mustaches and tie-dye, was released on Jan. 13 by the Park Forest Police Department “to clear the air on some of the misconceptions of Illinois’ recently enacted adult-use cannabis laws.”
On Jan. 1, Illinois, a Midwest state with a long history of drug trade and tensions with law enforcement, became the 11th in the U.S. to legalize recreational cannabis. Along with changing the legal status of the plant, Governer Jay Pritzker granted 11,017 pardons as part of a stated initiative to right the wrongs of prohibition.
Read more: Illinois becomes 11th state to legalize cannabis, grants 11,000 pardons
Borrowing the title of the 1978 classic stoner movie “Up in Smoke,” the three-and-a-half minute video mixes comedy with clarification on the state’s new weed laws.
Among other laws, officers remind viewers that cannabis must be bought from a licensed dispensary and stored in a sealed, odour-proof, child-resistant container, not within the passenger compartment of a vehicle.
At the start of the video, the police department states that the parody is meant to educate and entertain, and does not reflect their perceptions of cannabis users
Along with the title, the flick borrows a scene from the famous film. Who did it better? Well, you can decide for yourself, maaaaaan.
https://www.facebook.com/parkforestpolice/videos/2618978111692475/
And the original, starring Tommy Chong and Richard “Cheech” Marin:
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