Willie Nelson Calls for a National 'Teapot Party'

Willie Nelson wasn’t crossing any national boundaries, but that didn’t stop his tour bus from getting pulled over in Texas by U.S. Border Patrol, which, after some ace detective work, arrested the country music legend and long-time pot legalization advocate after reportedly discovering six ounces of marijuana.

But that arrest, his third since 2005, hasn’t quieted the outspoken singer-activist. Instead, it’s given him an idea: why not launch a national campaign -- a political party, maybe -- to advocate reforming this nation’s absurdly draconian drug laws?

“There's the Tea Party,” Nelson told the aptly named website CelebStoner after his arrest. “How about the Teapot Party? Our motto: We lean a little to the left.”

The party’s first and foremost goal? Ending pot prohibition, of course. "Tax it, regulate it and legalize it," says Nelson. "And stop the border wars over drugs. Why should the drug lords make all the money? Thousands of lives will be saved."

As of early Monday afternoon, more than 7,400 people have “liked” a Facebook page set up to advertise Nelson’s new party (and local chapters have already begun springing up).

And the nascent political movement is starting to draw attention about some big names in the drug policy reform world.

"It's about time we did something pro-active," Tommy Chong of the infamous pot-smoking comedy duo Cheech and Chong told CelebStoner. "We're close -- we just need something to push [legalization] over the top, and with Willie leading the way we're as good as gold."

NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre is also backing Nelson’s push for a left-leaning, pro-legalization answer to the Tea Party.

"For years NORML’s founder Keith Stroup has admonished cannabis consumers—the tens of millions of cannabis consumers in America—to stop voting for politicians who support arresting cannabis consumers," St. Pierre writes on the group's blog. "If enough cannabis consumers get politically active and organize under Willie Nelson’s ‘Tea Pot Party,' voters in [the] future may have a choice to support bona fide office seekers who support ending cannabis prohibition."

With a record-high 46 percent of Americans supporting marijuana legalization, according to Gallup, reform is within closer reach than ever before. Just one piece of advice to Mr. Nelson, though: Outside of the already too-far-gone Glenn Beck groupies, there are some self-styled Tea Partiers whose opposition to "big government" is based on actual principles, not just the party affiliation of whoever happens to be in the White House. There's no reason you can't reach out to some of these folks, too -- marijuana legalization need not be an issue just for lefties. After all, nothing says oppressive, big government like the state arresting a 77-year-old singer-songwriter for the crime of possessing a plant.

Photo Credit: Gerard Stolk