> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Marijuana advocates ignite their reform efforts at gala - URL: https://www.smdp.com/marijuana-advocates-ignite-their-reform-efforts-at-gala/ - Published: 2005-05-14T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T07:09:21.000Z - Author: Carolyn Sackariason - Tags: Events, Pico, #archive-import *Tommy Chong gets ‘courage under fire’ award at SM gala* PICO BLVD. — Hundreds of pot advocates, dressed to the nines, gathered in Santa Monica this past week to feast on a three-course dinner with free-flowing wine while celebrating the successes of the nation’s largest marijuana reform organization. Those who attended the Marijuana Policy Project’s 10th Anniversary Gala weren’t your average pot smokers, who have typically been cast in society as underachievers and slackers who wear tie-dye T-shirts and pony-tails. Supporters of the group, with more than 17,000 dues-paying members and 150,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, insist they be taken seriously. “We want to be professional,” said Rob Kampia, the group’s executive director, who added that a similar gala held May 4 in Washington D.C. garnered the attention of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Why is this on page 1? We did this in D.C.... When you do something normal, it’s news. It’s like they expected us to misbehave.” The non-smoking event in Santa Monica attracted celebrities such as television talk show host Montel Williams, who, as the event’s honorary chair, delivered a sobering message about how marijuana has saved his life since he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. In true talk-show host fashion, Williams walked around the penthouse of the Sheraton Delfina Hotel, speaking to the crowd as they noshed on baked chicken and lasagna. Williams, who broke down crying during his speech, received a standing ovation from the crowd. Williams, who is a user of medical marijuana to treat the symptoms of MS, first tried to alleviate his pain with regular usage of the strongest painkillers on the market — Vicodin, Oxycontin, Percocet and morphine. Not only were the drugs expensive and didn’t bring Williams any relief, they made him incoherent, addicted and depressed, he said. Acting upon his doctor’s recommendation, Williams began smoking pot to alleviate his symptoms. Since then, he has advocated for protection of patients on his television show, and during personal visits to Capitol Hill and New York’s state Capitol, to name a few. “All I want is a chance to keep working, and without this marijuana, I can’t work,” said Williams, who wrote in his book about living with MS, “Climbing Higher,” that his mental and physical pain were so severe that he twice attempted suicide. The Marijuana Policy Project, the nation’s largest policy reform lobbying organization, works to minimize the harm associated with marijuana — both the consumption of it and the laws that are intended to prohibit it. The nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is imprisonment. It has focused most of its energies on removing criminal penalties for medical marijuana use. The Santa Monica event was held to celebrate MPP’s victories over the past 10 years and commemorate the progress of the entire marijuana policy reform movement. But as Williams pointed out, the battle to reform medical marijuana laws is far from over. He said that when he got involved in the movement, he was convinced that President Bush would expand medicinal marijuana laws. “I thought this was a battle that we could win... maybe I was high when I was thinking that,” Williams joked. “Then I came to realize how absolutely ignorant that thought was.” Williams, who carries a card issued by California that allows him to obtain his marijuana supply, partially blamed heavy hitters in Hollywood who use pot recre-ationally but remain on the sidelines in the debate. “There are a lot of powerful voices out there, but they all cover and run away,” he said. Williams also said he feels betrayed by his government not only because he served in the military for 22 years, but that he bought into the country’s war on drugs and for years spoke out against drug use at high schools. “I defended a country that doesn’t support me... I’ve been paying my taxes, and I haven’t missed a beat my adult life... I think I did my share for democracy,” he said. “I fought this dumb-ass war against drugs, and I got sold a line of shit.” Also honored at the gala in Santa Monica was Supreme Court medical marijuana plaintiff Angel Raich, who has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, a seizure disorder, nausea and several chronic pain disorders. She was partly paralyzed until she started using marijuana. As a result of Raich and co-filer Diane Monson’s lawsuit against the federal government, both are now legally allowed to use, possess and grow their own marijuana under California state law and federal law. Actor Tommy Chong received the Courage Under Fire Award for his recent imprisonment for paraphernalia traffick-ing. His experience is highlighted in a recently released documentary, “Chong’s Not Here!” a portrait of Chong set against the backdrop of America’s culture war. Filmmaker Josh Gilbert follows the journey of legendary counter-culture comedian Chong, who was besieged by a fully armed SWAT team and indicted for distributing art glass water pipes over the Internet in a $12 million drug paraphernalia sting operation, “Operation Pipe Dreams.” He wound up serving nine months in federal prison. International comedian Tom Rhodes, who hosted the event, said the legalization of medicinal marijuana is about money — the country’s lawmakers would rather stay in the deep pockets of the pharmaceutical companies than use the most inexpensive way to combat pain associated with disease. Their arguments that marijuana legalization will lead to harder drug usage among Americans is nothing more than a smokescreen for their own agendas, Rhodes said. “The lobbyists are too strong, and the lawmakers are too weak,” he said. “Marijuana is not going to make you run out and do heroin.” The federal government classifies marijuana in the same category as LSD, PCP and heroin, considered unsafe to use even under a doctor’s prescription. In most states, physicians are allowed to prescribe cocaine, morphine and methampheta-mine, but not marijuana. California is an exception — voters have approved allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to patients and caregivers. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/051405-02_01.jpg) Talk show host Montel Williams and actor Tommy Chong are advocates for reforming marijuana laws. (Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 14, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/051405.pdf?ref=smdp.com)