When you criticize the war on drugs, the drug warriors will come after you.

That’s what happened to to the distributor of a movie about the malicious prosecution of Tommy Chong (of Cheech and Chong fame).  Thousands of copies of the DVD were seized under the guise of being “drug paraphernalia.” (Here are items that could all more plausibly be considered drug paraphernalia: apples, pumpkins, gatorade, cola… you get the idea.)

Radley Balko reports:

Buchanan’s latest effort is a sting on companies that sell masking devices to help people pass drug tests. Earlier this month, federal agents raided nine locations in six states where they suspected sales of products like the “Whizzinator,” made famous by actor Tom Sizemore and Minnesota Vikings running back Onterrio Smith. There’s no specific federal law criminalizing the sale of masking products, and none of the sites raided by federal agents were actually in Buchanan’s district. My guess is that she’s likely to charge manufacturers who ship the products into states that do have broad drug paraphernalia laws, or that have specific laws against masking products, under federal conspiracy statutes.

But it gets better. In the raid on Spectrum Labs in Newport, Kentucky, federal agents seized 8,000-10,000 copies of the movie AKA Tommy Chong. The movie is a documentary critical of Buchanan and the federal government’s persecution of Chong. Federal agents apparently think it’s drug paraphernalia.

“It’s a way to punish the distributor financially,” Mr. Chong said. “There’s no way to get the DVDs back until the investigation is over.” Mr. Chong said he has no ownership in the film.

He called the documentary a “focal point” of the raid. It was released about a month ago, and sales were slow, Mr. Chong said.

“It’s selling like crazy now, thanks to Mary Beth. She’s brought us a nice publicity gimmick.”

Buy your very own copy of the movie here.

There’s a reason the tagline for this site is: “It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.”