Jay and Silent Bob are fictional characters portrayed by American actors Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, respectively. They appear in the View Askewniverse, a fictional universe used in most of the films, comics, and television programs written and produced by Smith.
Worldwide Pants Incorporated is an American television and film production company founded and owned by comedian and talk show host David Letterman.
Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful is an American 1991 mockumentary film starring comedian Julie Brown as the title character, with Kathy Griffin and Donal Logue in supporting roles. Comedians Tom Kenny and Bobcat Goldthwait and game show host Wink Martindale also made cameo appearances in the film.
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video is a 1979 American comedy film conceived and directed by Saturday Night Live writer/featured player Michael O'Donoghue. It is a spoof of the controversial 1962 documentary Mondo Cane, showing people doing weird stunts.
Cheech and Chong's Next Movie is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Tommy Chong and the second feature-length project by Cheech & Chong, following Up in Smoke, released by Universal Pictures.
Evil Bong is a 2006 American stoner horror comedy film directed by Charles Band about a group of stoners who smoke from a sentient, malevolent bong that traps the smoker in The Bong World, a surreal realm filled with killer strippers and other Full Moon creatures. The ending features an extended cameo by Tommy Chong, of Cheech & Chong fame. Brandi Cunningham from VH1's Rock of Love with Bret Michaels and horror icon Bill Moseley also make appearances in the film, which spawned a franchise of sequels.
"Marijuana" is a song by American hip hop recording artist Kid Cudi, taken from his second studio album Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (2010). The song was produced by Cudi, alongside American record producer Dot da Genius, who provided the song's guitar solo.
On August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
The Ferguson unrest was a series of protests and riots which began in Ferguson, Missouri on August 10, 2014, the day after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by FPD officer Darren Wilson. The unrest sparked a vigorous debate in the United States about the relationship between law enforcement officers and Black Americans, the militarization of police, and the use-of-force law in Missouri and nationwide. Continuing activism expanded the issues by including modern-day debtors prisons, for-profit policing, and school segregation.
The killing of John Crawford III occurred on August 5, 2014. Crawford was a 22-year-old African-American man shot and killed by a police officer in a Walmart store in Beavercreek, Ohio, near Dayton, while he was holding a BB gun that was for sale in the store. The shooting was captured on surveillance video and led to protests from groups including the NAACP and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The shooting of Antonio Martin occurred on December 23, 2014, in Berkeley, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Martin, an 18-year-old black male, was fatally shot by a white Berkeley police officer when Martin pulled a gun on him. The shooting sparked protests in the St. Louis area and other cities in the U.S. The shooting elicited comparison to the earlier shooting death of Michael Brown two miles away in Ferguson, Missouri.
The Peter Bergmann case pertains to the mysterious death of an unidentified man in Sligo, County Sligo, Ireland, on or around 16 June 2009. The man, using the alias "Peter Bergmann", had checked into the Sligo City Hotel on June 12, where he stayed during the majority of his visit to Sligo. The man's movements were captured on CCTV throughout the town; however, the details of his actions and intentions remain unknown. His interactions with other people were limited, and little is known of his origins or the reason for his visit.
"Weed the People", officially "Weed the People: A Cannabis Legalization Celebration", was an event held in Portland on July 3, 2015, two days after recreational marijuana became legal in the U.S. state of Oregon. Sponsored by the Portland Mercury and two cannabis companies, the event was attended by an estimated 1,500–2,000 people, who were provided up to seven grams of marijuana for immediate consumption or to take home. Organizers complied with restrictions on recreational sales by distributing free cannabis and required attendees to pay an entry fee. More than 1,300 tickets were sold, but the building's 500-person capacity meant long wait times to enter. Media outlets reported on the historic nature of the event, which was described as a "stoner's paradise" and a celebration of freedom.
Sandra Annette Bland was a 28-year-old African-American woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on July 13, 2015, three days after being arrested during a traffic stop. Officials found her death to be a suicide. There were protests against her arrest, disputing the cause of death, and alleging racial violence against her.
The murder of Laquan McDonald took place on October 20, 2014, in Chicago, Illinois. McDonald was a 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a Chicago Police Officer, Jason Van Dyke. Police had initially reported that McDonald was behaving erratically while walking down the street, refusing to put down a knife, and that he had lunged at officers. Preliminary internal police reports described the incident similarly, leading to the shooting being judged as justifiable, and Van Dyke not being charged at the time. This was later disproved after a video of the encounter was released, showing that McDonald was walking away.
On July 5, 2016, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was shot and killed by two Baton Rouge Police Department officers, Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The officers, who were attempting to control Sterling's arms, shot Sterling to death, which was preceded by Salamoni threatening Sterling with his gun before Sterling was restrained, yelling that he would "shoot [Sterling] in the fucking head" if he moved. Police alleged that Sterling had reached for the loaded handgun in his pants pocket. Police were responding to a report that Sterling was selling CDs and that he had used a gun to threaten a man outside a convenience store. The owner of the store where the shooting occurred said that Sterling was "not the one causing trouble" during the situation that led to the police being called. The shooting was recorded by multiple bystanders.
The Donald Trump administration took positions against marijuana and against the easing of laws regarding marijuana. Although Trump indicated during his 2016 presidential campaign that he favored leaving the issue of legalization of marijuana to the states, his administration subsequently upheld the federal prohibition of cannabis, and Trump's 2021 fiscal budget proposal included removing protections for state medical marijuana laws. In 2018, the administration rescinded the 2013 Cole Memorandum, an Obama-era Justice Department policy that generally directed federal prosecutors not to pursue marijuana prosecutions in states where marijuana is legal as a matter of state law.
Wesley Bell is an American attorney, former public defender, former municipal prosecutor and judge, and former city council member. Currently, Bell holds the office of prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, Missouri. In a major upset, he soundly defeated long-time yet controversial county prosecutor Bob McCulloch in the August 2018 Democratic primary election. Bell became the first black county prosecuting attorney in St. Louis County history when he took office in January 2019. He is considered to have progressive political views.
The International Space Station cannabis experiment hoax is an Internet hoax that purports to show an image of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield holding a large baggie of cannabis to demonstrate an experiment concerning getting high by smoking cannabis on the International Space Station. According to Snopes and other websites, the image appeared on Facebook around November 26, 2018; Hadfield replied on Twitter to another similar hoax or possibly the same image in 2016. The photograph is a doctored image of Hadfield holding a plastic zipper storage bag containing Easter eggs, which Hadfield tweeted in 2013. In Hadfield's 2013 autobiography An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, he described the bag of eggs being permanently stowed on the station for the crew during that holiday.
On August 24, 2023, Ta'Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant woman, was shot to death by a police officer in Blendon Township, Ohio after she accelerated her vehicle. The shooting occurred after police attempted to question her about shoplifting from a local grocery store.
