Tommy Chong

[Key West]

Tommy Chong

<!--StartFragment -->9 month - Conspiring to distribute drug paraphernalia.

<!--StartFragment --> Iconic celluloid stoner sentenced to nine months for selling bongs.

On September 11, 2003, comedian Tommy Chong was sentenced to nine months in prison, a fine of $20,000, and the forfeiture of about $120,000 in assets. He also had to give up his internet domain name of tommychong.com.

Chong, best known as half of the famed pot-comedy duo Cheech and Chong, was the founder of a business called Nice Dreams, which manufactured and sold bongs under the name Chong Glass. The business was operated by Chong's son, Paris.

In May 2003, Chong plead guilty to charges of "conspiring to distribute drug paraphernalia," after a sting operation in which federal agents in Pittsburgh ordered his bongs over the Internet, thus ensuring that the items were sent across state lines.

Undercover cops also bought two of Chong's bongs at a store in Texas. They received Chong's autograph on the bongs, and got a t-shirt depicting Chong smoking from one.

Chong's bust was part of a larger anti-bong police effort called Operation Pipe Dreams, which involved over 2,000 federal, state and local law enforcement officers. The operation culminated on February 24, 2003, with simultaneous raids against multiple paraphernalia retailers, distributors and manufacturers, including Chong (CC#43, Bong shops under attack!).

Most of these raids against pipe-selling shops and businesses, which had operated openly for years, involved SWAT teams with semiautomatic rifles drawn and helicopter units as backup. The unhappy date is now known as "2/24" among the glass-blowing culture. The raids led to the seizure of tons of pipes and bongs, and left hundreds of people unemployed. 22 people from a variety of pipeselling businesses have been convicted so far, with about 40 still under indictment. Chong was the first of the Operation Pipe Dreams defendants to plead guilty, and also the first to receive jail time. Chong has launched an appeal, but only against the length of his sentence, not his conviction. As a result, he remains behind bars as his appeal is being heard.

http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3264.html