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The Prosecution Of Comedian Tommy Chong
Pubdate: Thu, 29 Jun 2006
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun
THE PROSECUTION OF COMEDIAN TOMMY CHONG
Cheech and Chong Were The First Comedians To Make Fun Of The Stoner
Culture Of The '60s And '70s -- The People Who Smoked Marijuana
On one level, A.K.A. Tommy Chong is a straightforward documentary
about the prosecution, arrest and imprisonment of comedian Tommy Chong
for selling pipes used to smoke marijuana. On another, it is an
indictment of the U.S. federal justice system for abusing the law for
its own political agenda by deliberately targeting Chong.
Tommy Chong became a household name in the 1960s and '70s as part of
of the comedy duo Cheech & Chong. As a kind of Abbott and Costello for
the counter culture, Cheech and Chong were the first comedians to make
fun of stoner culture -- the people who smoked marijuana. They
released six comedy albums and seven films, many of which involved the
two comedians playing stoned characters on the run from inept police
officers such as Sgt. Stedenko.
Although the duo eventually split and went their own ways, Chong kept
doing comedy routines with his wife Shelby. Chong was also involved in
his son's company Nice Dreams Enterprises which made bongs and water
pipes -- many of which were used to smoke marijuana -- and sold them
over the Internet.
Pennsylvania prohibits the sale of drug paraphernalia. As a recorded
phone call in A.K.A. Tommy Chong shows, Nice Dreams wouldn't ship to
Pennsylvania despite the repeated pleas of one insistent customer. In
what Chong described as entrapment by the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency, a man from the Pennsylvania company travelled to the west
coast, ordered $5,000 worth of bongs, and then left the goods in the
warehouse in California. He then pleaded to have them shipped to
Pennsylvania, which the company did eight months later.
According to Josh Gilbert's documentary, if the U.S. federal
administration had been interested in protecting Americans from the
evils of dope they would have warned drug paraphernalia retailers that
a rarely enforced law was going to be enforced. That would have given
everyone a chance to change their behaviour. But they didn't do that.
Instead, DEA officials -- and a Fox News crew -- showed up at Chong's
home one morning. They also raided the company's warehouse, taking
computers, cash and bongs.
U.S. federal law so favours the prosecution, according to the documentary,
that plea bargains are the only way to save yourself from long prison terms.
Even though he had only a tenuous relationship with Nice Dreams, Chong
pleaded guilty to stop federal officials from seeking two-year prison terms
for his wife and his son Paris. In court, prosecutors argued that Chong
should do jail time for making movies that glorified drug use. They also
cited a comment Chong made in an interview that referred to the U.S.
administration's bogus justification for the invasion of Iraq: "The only
weapons of mass destruction they found so far were my bongs."
He was fined $20,000 and had to forfeit $103,000. In addition, Chong
was sentenced to nine months in a minimum-security federal prison, one
of the few in Operation Pipe Dream who went to prison. The entire
operation cost the U.S. federal government $12 million.
With the U.S. government about to invade Iraq and start the second
Gulf War when charges against him were announced, Chong says that what
the federal government did amounted to "a pre-emptive strike against
the hippies and the anti-war movement.
"I do have a voice and my voice is against the Vietnam War -- every
war," Chong, 68, said in a phone interview. "I just automatically took
my stance. I said my view on the radio a few times and they just said:
'Take him down.' "
Chong said that he believes officials in the George W. Bush
administration were surprised that he had never been arrested until
Operation Pipe Dream, which was sanctioned by then-U.S.
attorney-general John Ashcroft.
"They had no idea that I'm as articulate as I am and that I'm an
actor. I was playing a role. I discovered a character and was
entertaining people with my character," he said from Los Angeles.
"Unfortunately, it did not fit in in with Bush's view of the world so
they had to take me down. I became an enemy."
They say the best revenge is living well and Chong is doing just that. He's
got a book coming out in August with a title that recalls the I Ching, the
ancient Chinese Book of Changes. Called I Chong: Meditations from the Joint,
it's an autobiography about the time he spent in jail.
Since his conviction, his career has taken off. He's now more popular
than ever.
A.K.A. Tommy Chong has its Canadian theatrical debut at the VanCity
Theatre in the Vancouver International Film Centre at Davie and
Seymour. It runs from Friday, July 7 to Thursday, July 13.
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