AACE INTERVIEW: Way Quoe Long
WAY QUON LONG
Way Quoe Long is a a non-violent offender who has been serving one of the toughest sentences for cannabis ever handed down in a federal court.
I had the honor of speaking with Way Quoe Long. Take a deep breath and think of how what you have in your hand or in the well-designed jar on your desk and how far we have come, on one side the advocates pushed for Prop. 64 (California Cannabis legalization) and another set of advocates moved to free the “pot prisoners”. Without the work of Cheri Sicard, Beth Curtis, and others tirelessly working to free him, he would still be in jail serving the last half of his 50-year sentence
Way Quoe Long arrived in the US from Laos in 1975 to Iowa. Music and art-filled his life and his goal were to go to California to bring his artistic ambitions.
His life changed in 1995 when a government cooperating witness was arrested when the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant on a marijuana farm in Fresno California. To save themselves from incarceration the informer indicated Long was the kingpin and Long has been incarcerated since 1996.
The trauma of being arrested, and separated from his family, his trial was over a month long. One cooperating witness after another rose to testify against him in order to fulfill their plea bargains and reduce their sentences. Way Quoe Long was used as a get-out-of-jail card and sentenced to 50 years.
In 2020, Way was pardoned by President Trump with the decades-long help from activists that never let his name disappear from the list of cannabis prisoners who were arrested for what we now sell openly. - Ophelia Chong
You immigrated to the US in 1975 right after the end of the Laos Civil War. The US has a long history with Southeast Asia and it is not a history that we can be proud of, with Laos playing a part in the clandestine training of Laotian hill tribesman and Hmong. At the end of the war, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam were thrown into chaos, and the third wave of Asian immigration began in the US. Tell us about your journey to the US, was it with family and how did your family adapt to life in the US?
After the U.S. left Vietnam, our family left Vientiane, Laos around May 75 ? for a small border town across the Mekong river. While in Thailand, I went back to Laos often and stayed by myself. Didn’t remember eating anything, must have though, I was 12 years old!
The American in charge of refugees in Thailand knew my father, he found out where we were at, and told my father we must go into a refugee camp in Nong kai in order to come to the U.S.. We spent a week in a temple-turned refugee camp.
First set foot on U.S. soil at Camp Pendleton. The Vietnamese were there first, people from Laos, then Cambodian, spent 2 weeks there. End up in Iowa a week or two before Halloween. People were friendly in the college town, troubles came after high school with the college jock and trailer trash, I’m fortunate to come out on top each time. A detective try to coerce me into signing a blank police report on one of the incidents, just fingered him and walked out. Kids grow up early in Asia.
Stranger in a new land! Mother had a hard time adjusting to the new life, after a couple of months we got used to the isolated life style in the U.S. My first two years were spent with a stoner kid across the creek from us, mostly shooting everything in sight in the woods next to his house.
Your arrest came about by informants and your conviction was set by other informants who wanted lighter sentences, from an article we get a sense of what happened: In 1995, a government cooperating witness was arrested when the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant on a marijuana farm in Fresno California. In order to obtain a release for himself and his pregnant wife, Long’s accuser indicated Long was the kingpin and Long has been incarcerated since 1996. The co-operating witness has been free since 2000.
Tell us about the day you were arrested.
May 17, 1996, seems like yesterday but over a quarter century has passed. We usually go into the smoke room and music practice space around 10 pm, for no particular reason we decide to make noise at 6 pm on this date. Around 8:00 pm, cop cars, helicopters, and 2 swat teams came and snatch me. The head of Fresno Narcotic Enforcement Team Chris Osborn told me I’m going to prison for life, just told him no scare. This pig stole a couple of thousand dollars of pocket money I had on me. Around 40 law enforcement came for me, but there were more people in the house on this night, about 15 elementary-age neighborhood kids that we feed the food of their choice on Friday night were there also. What is crazy was there was a trunk full of freshly trimmed greenhouse flowers inside the trunk of a new driver in training parked in front of the house, he just arrived 15 minutes earlier from Fresno.
You spent nearly half of your 50-year sentence in jail until you were pardoned by President Trump, what emotions did you go through when you heard you were pardoned? How long were you working on a pardon, and who can we give credit to for helping you?
Many thanks to all the people and organizations that help free me.
Adela Wilson-Whom currently facing cannabis prosecution in Missouri.
Beth Curtis of Life for Pot-President Trump grants her brother me and many other cannabis prisoners freedom on his last day in office.
Cheri Sicard-For letting the world know there are people serving long sentences for cannabis.
Freedomgrow-For sending commissary money.
The Last prisoner project-Clemency petition; financial grant and support after prison. My niece’s law school classmate worked on my case with LPP, and Attorney Joseph Elford of San Francisco drafted the petition for early release from supervised release.
University of Minnesota Law school director and an attorney from the east coast who supplement my clemency petition. I forgot both females’ names.
And the many penpals while I’m in prison!
President Obama didn’t grant me clemency, after I received the denial letter, I told everyone with an open ear I’ll be free within 5 years. And didn’t file any petition with the corrupt court system to gain freedom! Just play music and filed a duplicate clemency petition in the third year of President Trump’s term. Jailbirds think I’m off the rail, no one laughed when I walked out of the housing unit which was on covid lockdown.
It must be like waking up out of a coma and then seeing cannabis available at almost every corner in a legal store, what are your thoughts about this?
Crazy, but I have not smoked any, saved my breath for when I’m able to grow again! I walked into a dispensary with a jailhouse pen pal before I was off probation to see the quality of flowers in the Seattle area, only pre-rolls were available. What’s with the pricing? It’s all so overpriced!
What are your future plans? What do you need to help you attain your goals?
Would like to grow some outdoor 30-pounders! Is possible in Cali, would be great to get an outdoor growing job there. Thailand is tempting if I can find some farmers to work with or a growing job there.
What strains were you growing back in the 90’s and how do you compare cannabis that you grew to what is out available now in legal shops?
I had an older friend that collect seeds for me in the 80’s, bred for what I consider to be important to me. Yield, no smell (Came close), early maturing, and don’t hermaphrodite during the spring outdoor crop. I bred two seeds, one with a purple red vein on the leaf and a skinny purple red crooked stalk, looks like a homeless crackhead but turned into Hercule when matured, with golden trichomes and nonchoking molasses tasting smoke, mostly Sativa. This one has a typical green leaf and stalk, flower not as dense but full of trichomes on the stalk and leaf, choker (Not for me), bitter dark chocolate taste 65/35 Sativa.
I can never produce enough to meet the demand, on par with high time centerfolds. Not as good as the current top shell flowers.
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