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. - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine