Page "John Ashcroft" Paragraph 54

Ashcroft has been a proponent of the War on Drugs.

In a 2001 interview on Larry King Live, Ashcroft announced his intent to escalate efforts in this area.

In 2003, Ashcroft and the acting DEA Administrator, John B.

Brown, announced a series of indictments resulting from two nationwide investigations code-named Operation Pipe Dream and Operation Headhunter.

The investigations targeted businesses selling drug paraphernalia, mostly marijuana pipes and bongs, under a little-used statute ( Title 21, Section 863 ( a ) of the U. S. Code ).

Counterculture icon Tommy Chong was one of those charged, for his part in financing and promoting Chong Glass / Nice Dreams, a company started by his son Paris.

Of the 55 individuals charged as a result of the operations, only Chong was given a prison sentence ( nine months in a federal prison, plus forfeiting $ 103, 000 and a year of probation ).

The other 54 individuals were given fines and home detentions.

While the DOJ denied that Chong was treated any differently from the other defendants, many felt that he was made an example of by the government.

Chong's experience as a target of Ashcroft's sting operation is the subject of Josh Gilbert's feature length documentary a / k / a Tommy Chong, which premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.