Operation Pipedreams

Operation Pipedreams was a sting operation targeted to sellers of bongs, pipes etc. The estimated cost of this operation was over $12 million and included the resources of 2,000 law enforcement officers.

"People selling drug paraphernalia are in essence no different than drug dealers. They are as much a part of drug trafficking as silencers are a part of criminal homicide." – John Brown, acting DEA chief.

Well in US not only you can buy a silencer, you can buy the gun itself, obviously he missed that. Of course John Brown, of the Drug Enforcement Agency, has little interest in guns and murder outside of the world of drug dealing. In the last couple of days, however, he has overseen the arrest of at least 55 people whose only stated crime was the manufacture and selling of smoking accessories. His equation of bong-makers with drug traffickers is ludicrous at best, and his apparent indifference to the legal sale of silencers across America makes him a hypocrite caught in his own words.

Out of the 55 people targeted only one was sent to jail, actor Tommy Chong, while government officials denied that Chong was treated any differently from the other defendants, many felt that he was made an example of by the government and that they were threatened by him, yet they deny that. I bet the government didn't have any other problems back in 2003 but to bust people like Tommy Chong.