The new documentary film A/K/A Tommy Chong opened today in NYC. It chronicles the arrest and subsequent tale of the actor/comedian’s travails with post 9/11 justice in America. This shows what happens when an over-empowered Attorney General, in this case John Ashcroft, decides to spend 12 million plus to make an example of a man involved with marijuana in a world where we worry about being attacked by terrorists.
This is a jaw-dropper of a case and there are numerous talking heads interviewed to talk about the legal and social significance of this case. Alan Dershowitz, Bill Maher, Jay Leno and Cheech Marin among others are interviewed about the case and offer much outrage and perspective on Chong’s case, especially when combined with newsreel footage of Ashcroft and his puritanical-appearing minion.
From the films website:
a/k/a Tommy Chong chronicles the entrapment and incarceration of comedic legend Tommy Chong. Josh Gilberts film offers a sometimes frightening, often hilarious account of Operation Pipe Dreams, a nationwide drug paraphernalia sting operation spearheaded by former Attorney General John Ashcroft.
After a fully armed SWAT team raided the 65 year-old comedian’s home in February of 2003, Tommy Chong was sentenced to 9 months in federal prison for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute drug paraphernalia through Chong Glass, a family business specializing in handmade glass water pipes, or “bongs.” Of the 55 defendants prosecuted, Tommy Chong was the only one with no prior convicitons to receive jail time. Justifying the 9 month sentance, the prosecutor cited the clasic 1978 movie Cheech & Chong film Up In Smoke as evidence that he had become wealthy “trivializing law enforcement efforts to combat marijuana trafficking and use.” As Roger Ebert said, “You do not have to approve of drugs to be offended.”
Chong is interviewed extensively and couldn’t be more endearing, truly a sweet and loving individual. In the coming attractions I saw a new documentary about the US vs. John Lennon when the Nixon Administration tried to expel Lennon from the country because he was critical of the Administration. It’s funny how free speech is something to be punished under right-wingers like Bush and Nixon. We won’t be rid of these folks for at least 2 and a half more years. After living through both the Nixon and Reagan years, it is so depressing to be reliving all this again under Bush. It’s way past time for change. I won’t sleep better knowing Tommy Chong did prison time after a massive sting operation for merely selling bongs yet Bin Laden roams free releasing tape after tape to laugh at us because of our Administrations indifference and incompetence.
cross-posted at Liberal Streetfighter
