It sounds like the stuff of pot-fueled paranoia: A guy sells a bong to some stranger -- after an inordinate amount of coaxing from the would-be customer, it must be said -- and winds up arrested by swarms of heavily armed police officers and DEA agents in a pre-dawn raid. But wait -- that's no paranoid delusion! It happened to Tommy Chong, half of the famed stoner-comedy duo Cheech and Chong, and it's chronicled in A/K/A Tommy Chong.

The documentary details the twisted legal odyssey of Chong, whose cannabis-friendly comic routines with "Cheech" Marin in the 1970s and '80s sold millions of records and led to a string of successful movies. A 2003 U.S. Justice Department push against drug paraphernalia manufacturers, dubbed "Operation Pipe Dreams," ensnared a high-profile trophy with Chong Glass/Nice Dreams, a Los Angeles-based water-pipe company largely bankrolled by Tommy Chong and operated by his son Paris.

Among the key prosecutors of "Operation Pipe Dreams" was Mary Beth Buchanan, U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania, which happened to be one of only two states that prohibited the sale of such paraphernalia. A DEA agent posing as a Pennsylvania head-shop owner spent months trying to purchase mail-order bongs from Chong Glass. The company refused, citing the Pennsylvania law. After eight months, however, Chong Glass finally relented and placed the order.

Bad move. "They wanted to make it look like a criminal enterprise, so they had to do the ol' raid in the morning," says the affable Tommy Chong, recalling how DEA agents descended on his business and home. Eventually, Chong bowed to a plea deal. He agreed to serve nine months in federal prison in exchange for the guarantee that prosecutors would not go after his wife and son. Of 55 defendants nabbed in "Operation Pipe Dreams," Chong was the only one with no prior convictions to end up serving time behind bars.

Documentarian Josh Gilbert, a friend of Chong's, stitches together television news clips and an array of interviews with Chong's family, friends and attorneys. It's not the most artfully structured picture. Largely shot on handheld video, some scenes feel like little more than home movies; you half-expect the recording date to flash on and off in the lower right-hand corner. A voiceover narrator suddenly -- and inexplicably -- pops up nearly two-thirds of the way through the film.

Even with a running time of less than 90 minutes, the 2005 documentary grows tedious, meandering from the legal tussle surrounding Chong Glass to biographical asides and then back again. Heck, there's even a short section devoted to how marijuana became engrained in American pop culture. Sadly, director Gilbert foregoes a prime opportunity to better use his time by surveying the weird inconsistencies of drug laws nationwide. What happened to Tommy Chong might be a travesty of justice, but at least he could afford an army of high-powered lawyers.

Ultimately, A/K/A Tommy Chong's lack of focus dilutes the outrageousness of its subject matter. Regardless of whether you're a committed stoner or straight-arrow, it's difficult to understand why the DOJ devoted so many resources and so much prosecutorial muscle in taking down Tommy Chong.

The documentary opines that the Bush Administration had targeted the celebrity as part of the seemingly never-ending culture wars. That's a debatable conclusion, sure, but it is beyond dispute that Uncle Sam spent millions of dollars to investigate, prosecute and imprison a guy whose crime had been selling bongs.

A/K/A Tommy Chong is homemade and proud of it, a shot-on-video production beset by soft images, muted colors and occasionally tremulous camera movements. What, you were expecting Kubrick? Aspect ratio is 1.33:1.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 track is flat, but generally serviceable. There is some inconsistency in volume, with some muffled audio here and there.

The one-minute, 33-second Chong Family is brief footage, shot the night before Chong reported to federal prison, in which he hangs out at home with his wife and kids. Dave's Not Here (4:49) reveals the origins of one of Cheech and Chong's most celebrated comedy skits.

The long, strange judicial trip of Tommy Chong is fascinating and occasionally outrageous, but the doc doesn't rise to the level of its subject. A/K/A Tommy Chong will be of interest to Cheech and Chong fans and NORML activists, but viewers with only a casual interest will find the film slow and a bit plodding.