A documentary by Josh Gilbert. Unrated. Opens Friday, July 7, at the Vancity Theatre

In the 1970s quintessential stoner flick Up in Smoke, Stacy Keach's Sgt. Stedenko and his team of bumbling cops pour all their energy into chasing two harmless, perma-baked hippies played by comedy duo Cheech and Chong. Now a new documentary shows that ridiculous caper coming to real life in the imprisonment of one of the film's spliffhead stars. Except this time, it's too scary to be a comedy.

Josh Gilbert's a/k/a Tommy Chong is fascinating on a number of levels. One is the straightforward story of the actor's journey to incarceration. With a vivid depiction of Vancouver's thriving counterculture in the '60s, it traces Tommy Chong's rise from improv-theatre producer in this city (where he met Cheech Marin) to Hollywood star. Later, he settles into standup comedy and helping his son with a “family” business: shipping autographed bongs across North America. After what appears to be an elaborate scheme to trick them into sending merchandise to Pennsylvania, where such drug paraphernalia is illegal, the DEA and LAPD descend on his California factory in 2003 with dogs, helicopters, and an army of gun-wielding officers.

With each new chapter, Gilbert deftly paints another layer of detail. Chong is arrested as part of Operation Pipe Dreams, part of the Bush admin's post-9/11 strategies. The new war on drugs focuses on celebrity scapegoats and equates pot use with terrorism.

In the film's most affecting flashbacks, we learn about the hardships Chong faced growing up in the snow-white Calgary of the 1950s and the more subtle reasons why he came to rebel against the mainstream. He understandably thrived in the social revolution of the '60s and '70s—a movement that red-state America is trying to erase from its collective memory, the documentary asserts.

Through it all, Chong is an articulate, wryly honest observer, quite a contrast to his weed-addled screen persona. His candid interviews at home and in jail make a punchy mix with clips of political posturing and insights from a host of supportive celebs, from Bill Maher to Peter Coyote. About the only criticism you could level at the film is that it's one-sided. But who would argue that the world is a safer place for putting this aging pothead away? Just like in Up in Smoke, Chong gets the last laugh on his new Sgt. Stedenko, though: with all this hype, he's enjoying a rejuvenated career.