NYT: 'A/K/A Tommy Chong,' a Documentary About the Comedian and the Law

[Bozita]

I've also posted this in GD where it's disappearing too quickly.

Fighting a counter-productive war like this is beyond most any form of human stupidity.

http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/movies/14chon.htm...
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June 14, 2006

MOVIE REVIEW

'A/K/A Tommy Chong,' a Documentary About the Comedian and the Law

By MANOHLA DARGIS

On Feb. 24, 2003, the nation's newspaper headlines provided a snapshot of the way we live now. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was in China that day, talking to the country's leaders about North Korea and the looming war in Iraq. A United Nations representative to Afghanistan was issuing dire warnings about that country's fragile peace. The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, was threatening to arrest the leaders of a national strike; meanwhile, representatives from the Ivory Coast were in Paris trying to negotiate peace.

That same morning, in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood Pacific Palisades, more than a dozen members of the Drug Enforcement Administration were giving the comedian Tommy Chong (né Thomas B. Kin Chong) and his wife, Shelby, a very rude awakening. A nationwide federal investigation, code-named Operation Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter, had just gone public and, as recounted in the documentary "a/k/a Tommy Chong," was about to rock the couple's world. More than 100 homes and businesses were raided that day, and 55 people were named in indictments, charged with trafficking in illegal drug paraphernalia — meaning, for the most part, what teenagers, hippies, rappers, Deadheads, cancer patients and many millions of other regular pot smokers commonly refer to as bongs.

Mr. Chong, half of the famous stoner comedy team Cheech and Chong, was not indicted that morning. But his family's business, Chong Glass, which manufactured a line of colorful hand-blown bongs under the name Nice Dreams (after one of the comedy duo's flicks), was raided. The company had been the brainchild of the Chongs' son Paris, who made sure he and the rest of the employees were familiar with laws regulating what are euphemistically called tobacco pipes. Even so, the company succumbed to one eager head-shop owner in Beaver Falls, Pa., who — as we hear in a tape played in the documentary — really, really wanted to buy some Nice Dreams pipes. That dude turned out to be a federal agent.

Months later Tommy Chong, who had never been arrested in his life, pleaded guilty. Subsequently, on Sept. 11, 2003, he was sentenced to nine months in jail; it was the harshest sentence that would come out of this particular chapter in the government's continuing War on Drugs. "The defendant has become wealthy throughout his entertainment career through glamorizing the illegal distribution and use of marijuana," wrote one of the prosecutors in papers filed with the court. "Feature films that he made with his longtime partner Cheech Marin, such as 'Up in Smoke,' trivialize law enforcement efforts to combat drug trafficking and use."

more...

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. The War on Drugs proved to be very successful

for the GOP in it's never ending quest to steal money from the American public in the 80's it is no surprise that the phrase has been updated to "the war on terror". Both are simply catch phrases that allow the GOP and their corporate allies to raid the treasury for billions and even trillions of dollars.

What happened to Tommy Chong was certainly a travesty.

[Free Mind]

2. reply

Why I disagree with the latter part of the first sentencee I must say they acclomplished nothing by arrested Tommy Chong. NOTHING.

[WindRavenX]

3. he shouldn't have been arrested in the first place

simple as that.

[K-W]

4. It was a publicity stunt,

they knew that busting Chong would give them a national news story about a paraphenalia bust.

Whether that publicity had the desired effect is debatable I suppose, but they certainly got the attention they wanted.