McFeely Blog: Two decades ago Snoop (maybe) smoking weed was a controversy in Fargo – InForum
FARGO – Maybe Snoop was smoking weed, maybe not. Some say it definitely was, others categorically deny it. Either way, he was a talker who had tight prudes. A musical artist who smokes marijuana! In the name of Willie Nelson, what is happening to this country? Where is good old red-blooded American Lee Greenwood when you need him?
You think we’re talking about Sunday’s fantastic Super Bowl halftime festivities that included 1990s rappers Snoop, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige and Eminem who melted the right because… eh well… you know. We all know. A prominent MAGA voice on Twitter called the rappers “thugs”. It’s probably just a coincidence that he used that word to describe the performers and all but Eminem are black.
Anyway, a video clip circulating on social media appears to show Snoop taking a hit on a joint before taking the stage at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. As of this writing, it hasn’t been confirmed to be pot, but considering Snoop’s open use of marijuana and his legality in California, there’s a good chance whether this is the case.
(Which, in 2022, is as shocking and outrageous as the sun rising in the eastern sky. A musician using a mind-altering substance before [or after or during] carry out? Wait someone talk to those offended puritans about Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings and other beloved country singers.)
Some people seem to have their underwear in a bundle on Snoop’s smoking weed, having once had their panties in a pile during the halftime show populated mostly by black rappers.
But the first paragraph of this blog had nothing to do with the Super Bowl. No sir. It was actually a reference to a concert Snoop (then more commonly known as Snoop Dogg) performed in Fargo on December 4, 2001.
A day after the concert, which was held at the downtown Civic Auditorium before a sold-out crowd of 3,500, Fargo police held a press conference saying they had made 10 arrests for charges ranging from possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle to possession of drug paraphernalia.
“We know that when we have a capacity crowd at the Civic and this type of performer, we expect there will be issues,” the Fargo Police Sgt. Wayne Jorgenson said according to the December 6 edition of The Forum, sounding a lot like Barney Fife. “We knew we would have a lot of work to do.”
(Even 20 years ago, Fargo was a very different place. The big local controversy before Snoop’s concert was that school children were denied a trip to see a Harry Potter film because a local radio host from right WDAY named Jeff Left threatened the school board because he believed Harry Potter was based on witchcraft, which called it religion, something something Constitution, something something. Or something.)
The focus on the arrests was not the part of the article that got the most attention. It was the second half that appeared under a subtitle called “Heavy Smoke”.
There were rumors, you know, of heavy marijuana use among the spectators. Egad.
This included Snoop Dogg himself, who reportedly smoked a joint onstage while performing. Double tie.
Excerpt from the Forum’s history:
There were reports of heavy marijuana use at the concert, including by Dogg and other performers.
Jorgenson said he did not speak to the officers who were there and could not comment on that.
sergeant. Kevin Pallas, who worked on the gig, said there was a lot of cigarette smoke in the Civic, but officers detected little marijuana use.
“It wasn’t easy for us,” he said. “I didn’t feel any inside the event myself.”
Police Chief Chris Magnus said he saw no evidence that Dogg actually smoked marijuana on stage and was unable to speak to officers working at the concert.
Magnus said Dogg could have smoked tobacco and simply passed it off as marijuana to go with his image. “From a legal standpoint, it’s not an issue that you can just ignore,” he said. “If he has that persona, that act, we need to be able to prove that it actually happened.”
Still, reports of heavy marijuana use by Dogg and the public “concern me,” Magnus said. “It means to me that we have to have a different strategy to deal with this kind of event in the future. … We have to coordinate with the Civic to do a better job of making sure it doesn’t happen again.”
With just eight officers on site, police could do a limited amount, he said. “(It) has to be done rationally. When you have a huge crowd, you have to make choices about what will and won’t train the app, depending on how many people you have to work on an event. Is it worth a few officers trying to sneak through a crowd of 3,500 people to arrest someone for a relatively minor matter?…I’m definitely not going to expect a or two officers endanger themselves in a dangerous situation.”
Snoop’s concert in Fargo was part of his first “Puff Puff Pass” tour. Now a mainstream celebrity who does cooking shows, co-writes books with Martha Stewart, and lends his name and image to wine, Snoop’s appearance on Fargo hasn’t been previewed or reviewed by The Forum. A local writer wrote
what appears to be a blog review that says the gig lasted 50 minutes
.
It was great to see Snoop Dogg perform in an area dominated by mule music. He was very grateful for the response and held the audience in the palm of his hand. It’s just unfortunate that his songs were short, his performance lasted less than an hour, and he failed to prove his ability to entertain as well as many other performers of his status.
Oh, and there’s this nugget in the online review: “What wasn’t missing was the marijuana, whether it was Snoop Inc. onstage, or the unmistakable aroma that echoed from the sky-high auditorium. open.”
Hmmm. Maybe Snoop smoked weed, maybe not. Some say it definitely was, others categorically deny it. It will remain a mystery, at least here in Fargo.
