'A/K/A TOMMY CHONG,' A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE COMEDIAN AND THE LAW

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 (ne 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."

The film "a/k/a Tommy Chong" tells the depressing, often ridiculous
and generally enraging story of how and why Mr. Chong, an extremely
laid-back and genial camera presence, ended up doing time in the
minimum-security Taft Correctional Institution in Taft, Calif.
Written and directed by Josh Gilbert, a friend of the comedian, the
78-minute film taps a number of experts and supporters to fill out
the larger story, including Eric Schlosser, the author of "Reefer
Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market."
Mr. Schlosser provides the film a much-needed dollop of historical
and political context, while friends and colleagues like Lou Adler,
the music impresario who directed Cheech and Chong's 1978 film "Up in
Smoke," along with Bill Maher and Jay Leno, lend more emotional and
outraged support.

"With the advent of the Internet, the illegal drug paraphernalia
industry has exploded," said Attorney General John Ashcroft the day
agents came knocking at Tommy and Shelby Chong's door. "This illegal
billion-dollar industry will no longer be ignored by law enforcement."
As Mr. Gilbert pointedly notes in his film, when Mr. Ashcroft resigned
in November 2004, he released another statement. This one read, in
part, that "the objective of securing the safety of Americans from
crime and terror has been achieved." By that time Tommy Chong was out
of jail and working again, appearing in a play about pot and making
plans to return to the television series "That 70's Show," on which he
played -- what else? -- an old hippie with nice dreams.

a/k/a Tommy Chong

Opens today in Manhattan

Produced and directed by Josh Gilbert; written by Mr. Gilbert, with
narration written by Mr. Gilbert and Steve Hager; directors of
photography, Mr. Gilbert, John Ennis and Jonathan Schell; edited by
Will Becton, Howard Leder, Marc Otto and Tom Walls; music by Oz Noy;
released by Blue Chief Entertainment. At the Film Forum, 209 West
Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village. Running
time: 78 minutes. This film is not rated.