KERN COUNTY, Calif. -- Actor Tommy Chong -- one-half of the famous Cheech and Chong duo -- has spent the past three weeks in a Kern County Federal prison after pleading guilty to selling bongs over the Internet.

Chong has not spoken to the press since his arrest, but did speak with News Channel 23's Emily Valdez.

In that interview, he explained why he plead guilty, and how he says the court system could not separate the real Tommy Chong from the pot-head characters he has played in movies and on television.

For 30 years, America has watched Tommy Chong play pot smoking, guitar playing, drug-loving characters.

As of Tuesday, he is three weeks into a nine month prison sentence at Wackenhut Federal Prison near Taft, after pleading guilty to selling 7500 bongs and pipes over his website on the Internet.

"They really arrested my character," Chong said. "The stoner musician was just a character."

Chong told Valdez from behind the prison walls that the bongs he sold were memorabilia, replicas of bongs featured in his movies, and art. He says he even had them on display at an art show.

"Anything with my face on it is movie memorabilia dealing with that culture," Chong said. Chong also says they bongs were labeled for tobacco use only. So why did he plead guilty when he felt he didn't do anything wrong? He says it was to protect his family.

"In my case, they told me if Ididn't plead guilty they would indict my wife and son and they would end up in jail," Chong said. "They said if I plead guilty nothing will happen to (me)."

He also feels the court didn't sentence Tommy Chong the person, but his movie character of "Cheech and Chong" fame.The real Tommy Chong, he says, is a family man, who no longer smokes pot.

Once this is all over, he plans to slip back into his old character again -- as an actor, that is.

"I'm a actor. I'm a nice guy," he said.

Chong is appealing his sentence, and is hoping to get it reduced to house arrest. While he is in prison, he is writing a "Cheech and Chong" book -- fiction, of course.