Pubdate: Wed, 29 Nov 2006
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2006 The Windsor Star
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501

PROGRESSIVE POT VIEWS IN CONSERVATIVE'S PAST

TORONTO - Conservative leader John Tory says he smoked marijuana as a 
high school and university student, once favoured lighter sentences 
for pot traffickers and even drove while "stoned."

The revelations are in a 30-year-old column Tory wrote as a student 
for the Osgoode Hall Law School newspaper.

Tory told the Toronto Sun he was writing honestly about his 
experiences with weed, but he hasn't used it since those early days, 
adding he is "30 years older (and ) hopefully a lot wiser."

His law-student article said it was "absurd" to throw marijuana 
traffickers in jail. Tory told the newspaper he still believes it is 
unfair to give someone the stigma of a criminal record for simple 
possession, but now believes in tougher sentences for traffickers.

The other provincial leaders, Premier Dalton McGuinty and NDP Leader 
Howard Hampton, have previously admitted to experimenting with pot or 
hashish as young men.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine