Fifty-five individuals and companies were busted across the country that day. A few others got prison time. The one who got the longest sentence was Tommy Chong. He reported to prison on October 8, and he’ll be there until July 2004. A judge recently rejected requests for home detention or early release.

“Tommy’s the only one that’s gotten a federal sentence,” says Allen St. Pierre, spokesperson for the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, or NORML. “He had no prior arrests. He was no flight risk. He is a cultural icon and a taxpayer, probably higher than most of us. And certainly did not fit the basic criteria of who should go to jail for paraphernalia.”

But there’s one criterion he fit just too neatly. Every burnout in America would hear about it and get scared.

“[Chong] wasn’t the biggest supplier. He was a relatively new player. But he had the ability to market products like no other,” said U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan at Chong’s sentencing.

“They went after Tommy Chong because he was just what they needed,” says St. Pierre. “If you have to think of one individual that would represent the government’s efforts to enforce prohibition, or a representative of the negative stereotype, then, out of a country of almost 300 million Americans, there’s really only about three or four people who fit that bill: Willie Nelson, Woody Harrelson, and Tommy Chong.”

Tommy Chong describes what his bust has come to mean for him. Not surprisingly, he's become politicized. We think this insight of his is right on target:

They wanted to make an example of me. Really, what they wanted to do was to shut down the whole culture.”

[links via Hit and Run]