Free Republic

Book plot: Spoiled rich kid with tough-guy attitude

TORONTO (Reuters) - Comedian Tommy Chong has spent almost three decades wringing laughs from cigar-sized joints and smoke-filled vans but now a nine-month jail term has turned him serious and revitalized his flagging career. Promoting his documentary "a/k/a Tommy Chong" at the Toronto International Film Festival, he hopes the film will expose what he says is the U.S. government's heavy-handed dealing with marijuana offenders in the post-September 11 era. "The United States is under martial law, it's under dictatorship," the 67-year-old father of four said in an interview. The film chronicles the Canadian-born comedian's 2003 arrest and imprisonment for selling...

TOM COHEN, Associated Press WriterThursday, December 12, 2002 ©2002 Associated Press URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/12/12/international1520EST0678.DTL (12-12) 12:20 PST TORONTO (AP) -- Getting caught with an ounce or less of marijuana in Canada should bring fines, not prison time and a criminal record, a parliamentary committee said Thursday. The committee was the second in Parliament that has called for Canada to ease its marijuana laws -- despite protests from the United States. Canada's Supreme Court is also preparing to hear a constitutional challenge to laws that make it illegal to possess pot, and Justice Minister Martin Cauchon said this week that legislation to...