heavy artillery exploded in neighborhoods. syrian forces shelled a mosque and church and at least 26 people reported killed, including the mayor of this neighborhood. across the country, at least 96 people were killed in street fighting and artillery fighting. there was even a street clash in damascus where troops killed 17. a california man faces a felony charge of child abuse for spanking his stepson with a belt. a neighbor shot video of the incident that happened wednesday during a backyard game of catch. the accused man is an official with the central california water agency. he's now out on bond. we have a great show tonight. here's what we're working on this hour. fire it up. it's saturday night. another big state easing up on pot laws. >> i believe that's a good idea. >> he's not the only one. cheech's pot smoking buddy is here. the 411 on 420. we guarantee you won't hear it anywhere else. we've got little people with big problems over snow white's dwarves. and the back story on an "america's got talent" singer who is apparently a talented liar. >> it's the truth that i truly think is real. >> busted for posing as an injured american war veteran. we're going to start tonight by talking about something a lot of people do, and look forward to doing on a saturday night. smoking pot. new york's governor this week proposed to lower the penalties for possession, because he believes those penalties are unfair. my next guest says it's time to make it legal. not only medically but socially, just like alcohol. john getman, you should know him. his specialty is the fiscal impact of marijuana laws. he's joining us from our nation's capital. john, first i want you and our audience to listen to what many call the poster boy of pot revealed to us. when we invited tommy chong on, we invited him to talk about the new york proposal. we had no idea he would drop this bombshell. >> my announcement is that i was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a month ago. and i'm going to start treating it with canibus oil. >> more of my interview with him, we'll talk about his treatment and why he thinks it should be legalized. john, he says what new york is proposing is more important to him and he believes many others because it could change the way people perceive marijuana and the laws surrounding marijuana. what do you think of his announce mend and why he says it's so important now? >> first of all, we all wish mr. chong a speedy recovery. tommy has entertained a lot of people over the last couple of decades. so we wish him well and hope that he has a successful fight with prostate cancer. as far as the new york issue goes, new york decriminalized marijuana possession in the 1970s. there was a loophole in that law, though, in which when people, if they displayed marijuana in public, they were still subject to a misdemeanor arrest. what's happened is the new york city police have used that loophole to ignore the intent of the legislature and the law and find ways to make arrests of people for marijuana. what they would do is question people, frisk them, get them to empty their pockets and when marijuana came out, arrest them for displaying it, which just so happens mostly it was blacks and hispanics who would be subject to this treatment. that's the purpose of the reform. >> the governor saying it is unfair and he believes that it can ruin a young person's life and said you shouldn't go through life if you're possessing a small amount of marijuana. the reason we're doing this, a whole lot of people do, especially on a saturday night, people look forward to doing it, and it's true, it's true. why do people, you know, want to believe that people just don't do pot, right? so do you think, number one, as new york goes the rest of the country goes? and do you think it is time that we start looking at deregulation of marijuana at least differently in this country? >> i think it's long overdue, but this is a good time. marijuana reform has been very popular issue in many states around the country. more importantly, we've been trying to use criminal law arresting people as a way of controlling this drug. we've been trying it avidly for over 50 years and it's been a failure. the real issue is keeping pot away from kids and we haven't been able to do that by arresting people. so it's time to try a different approach. >> 17 states plus d.c. offer some sort of legal marijuana possession, and california is included in that. just this week you saw what happened in new york. you said the war on drugs, as we call it here, as it relates to marijuana possession, it's not happening. in my conversation with you, you said the only way that you're going to control drugs in this country, marijuana i should say, and i want to be specific about that, the only way you're going to do that is by regulating it. >> we've been very successful with alcohol and tobacco with regulatory programs, with taxes, with controls, age limits for people buying it, relying on education and prevention programs. right now, more people teenagers smoke marijuana than smoke tobacco. so we've been successful with those programs and we should try that approach with marijuana. >> i want to be honest about this conversation. we didn't want to do that whole fake balance thing, john, where you have someone going this is why it's bad. we've heard the arguments, john, about why it's bad, that it's a gateway drug, that it causes violence and crime and that whole element. and the purpose of this show is to get people just to look at it differently and to open their minds about it, about -- especially how it might be able to help economically in these times that we have around the country. john, we'll talk more about this after the break. so stand by. now this for you, as well. why tommy chong believes his time in prison on drug charges gave him cancer. and why he, of all people, is against regulating marijuana. plus, king obama? 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[ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. ♪ what's in your wallet? ♪ what's in your...your... looking at your comments right now. thank you for talking to us about this. what she's doing, she's smoking pot. tonight, that's what we're talking about, not just the regular pot discussion. we're taking our conversation further. let's talk about dollars and cents. this has been called america's biggest cash crop. some people estimate up to $110 billion. that's what people in the united states spend each year on marijuana. each year on marijuana. and the taxes that are involved. we have all these governments around the country that have in financial shambles. could this help the economy if it is regulated and people change their thinking about the regulation of marijuana? >> absolutely. u.s. government estimates, 17 million pounds of marijuana grown each year in the u.s., $3,000 a pound, $50 billion industry, just domestically grown marijuana. leave aside what's brought in from overseas. that's money not being spent on cars or boats or what have you. it's not generating any tax income whatsoever. that's costing state, local and federal government $15, $17 billion a year in taxes. if it were legal, the price would drop tremendously and it's hard to do an estimate how much revenue it would generate, but it would be considerable. and also it would stop this hemorrhaging of money out of the legitimate economy. that alone would increase tax revenue considerably for local government. >> there are people who say, listen, there's an argument that covering the social costs of the regulation would outweigh the revenue it would bring in. and whatever the billions that you said from the sale that even generated from this, the social impact cost would outweigh that and we would pay in the long run instead of making money. what do you say to that? >> i think that's a spurious argument. the last data we got, 775,000 teenagers who admitted that they sold drugs last year, they're probably selling pot. the difference between alcohol and marijuana and tobacco, marijuana is illegal, highly profitable and that provides incentive for teenagers to sell it to each other. if it were legal, we could cut down on teenage marijuana use and the benefits would offset any other problems that it might create. sure, there are issues. >> it's a gateway drug. >> alcohol and tobacco are the gateway drugs. in the 1950s, a documentary i saw, "goof balls and tea" it was alcohol and tobacco followed by barbiturates, then it was marijuana. a lot of people who use marijuana get exposed to illegal drugs because they're going to a legal market. if we legalized it, it would cut that out. >> we see the violence in mexico, the violence on our boarders. what would it mean -- what would regulation mean for that? >> well, it would deflate the profitability and the tremendous amount of cash in the marijuana market and there wouldn't be such profits to fight over. there are criminal organizations involved in meth and kwoek and heroin smugglinging. heroin, what have you, but it would lower the violence and we wouldn't be buying as much marijuana from mexico, we would be buying it here. >> i always wondered why alcohol and not marijuana? >> our scientists figured out how marijuana affects the body in 1988. we've been able to observe what it does to people. there have been a lot of racial issues involved in terms of associating it with african-americans and mexicans and other immigrant groups. but really in terms of scientific knowledge, we couldn't crack the code of how this affects the human brain until the '80s. since then, the research has been how to take advantage of its therapeutic potential. >> great conversation. we'll have you back on again. thank you for coming on. appreciate it. breaking here tonight. tommy chong of "cheech and chong" fame announces he had cancer. i spoke with him earlier this evening. we were going to talk about the legalization method, but he told me this. tommy, good to see you. we brought you in to talk about this new york state lessening the laws for possession in public. but you have an announcement to make. what is it? >> my announcement is i was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a month ago. and i'm going to start treating it with cannibus oil or hemp oil or pot oil. and the reason i'm treating it with hemp oil is i looked at a video just recently called "run from the cure" by rick simpson. and it documents the whole -- how he cured his melanoma cancer by using hemp oil. >> you believe that -- you think that you got prostate cancer in prison after, you know, the paraphernalia and the internet company selling the bong, this was 2003. you think you got it in prison. why? >> that's my feeling. because i was totally healthy when i went in jail and i hadn't smoked pot before i went in jail and while i was in jail, i was clean as a whistle because they drug tested me almost every day and i started having problems with my prostate. i remember very well. when you have problems you have to get up in the middle of the night and pee a lot. and i also contacted gout from the food. so it was a combination of the food and the fact that the prison itself in taft, california is built over a toxic waste dump. and they have a thing there called valley fever that other prisoners were getting and they don't know what it was. it's some sort of wasting disease. so i think i got it there, yeah. >> we should tell, you haven't smoked pot in how long. >> well, i laid off for about a year, you know. when i started getting weird health issues, which turned out to be prostate cancer. so i did everything. i'm a very holistic person. the juices and no red meat and the whole bit. now that i found out that the hemp oil will help the prostate, hey, i'm back. >> do you think people are short sighted because many people have an issue with it morally and do you think people are being shortsighted about what marijuana can do to you as it compares to alcohol and other drugs can also -- what it means economically, should we, meaning the country as a whole, be looking at regulating marijuana as a way to help, to boost this economy? >> actually, i'm against it. i think leave it the way it is. i mean, we don't need more taxes. we don't need to be taxing something like they're doing with tobacco. i mean, again, where does the tax money go? it goes into a black hole called the government. >> i think people are going to think that -- finding out that you don't think it should be legalized? >> no, i don't think it should be taxed. i think it should be totally legal, yeah. but it shouldn't be taxed. >> why? how can you legalize it and regulate it and then not tax it? >> all you have to do is decriminalize it. just take away the criminal penalties. we don't need a system of who we're going to buy it from. we've got growers we buy it from. we got people that will come to your house. we don't need a government regulation to tell us this is good pot, that's bad pot. we don't need that. we've got everything in place. just take away the penalties. >> tommy chong, thank you so much. thank you for being candid with us about prostate cancer and for telling our viewers here and we wish you the very best, okay? >> thank you. and i want to come back when i'm cured and let you know how it went, okay? >> yes, we'll have you back. >> thanks, man. >> again, our thanks to tommy chong. we reached out to the prison he was in to talk about that. no comment from them tonight. best of luck to tommy chong. do liberals want barack obama, the president, to be a king instead of a president? that very question caused a huge stir on cnn.com. we'll grill the author of that editorial there. and we're going to read your comments next, as well. ya know, your rates and fees aren't exactly competitive. who do you think i am, quicken loans? [ spokesman ] when you refinance your mortgage with quicken loans, you'll find that our rates and fees are extremely competitive. because the last thing you want is to spend too much on your mortgage. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. ♪ but when it comes to what you really love, you shouldn't have to sacrifice. and that goes double for ice cream. now you don't have to give up. you can give in with dreyer's slow churned light ice cream. we churn it slowly for all the rich and creamy taste with just half the fat. so now you can have your ice cream and it eat it, too. ♪ nestlé -- good food, good life. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ a city known for its conservative ideals is now also known for a political first. fareed za carria talked with canada's first muslim mayor. >> reporter: if you've ever been to calgary, you might know it for its annual stampede. ten days of cowboys, rodeos. last year, the royals. and of course, its muslim cowboy hat-wearing mayor. what? who? >> reporter: when he became the first muslim mayor of a major canadian city in 2010, he shattered calgary's red neck stereotype. >> when i was running for office, it was only people that weren't from there that said is calgary ready for somebody like that? the people said that's a kid from the east end. we know him. okay. more talk now. more conversation. republicans aren't shy when it comes to criticizing president obama. but don't let these pictures fool you. cnn.com political contribute for dean obadallah says if you listen to the political left, you're liable to hear a greek chorus of whining. liberals want obama to be a king and not a president. dean, that certainly caused a stir when i read it. i said all right, i've got to tweet this out. so send me a link. your piece generating some interesting reaction. here's what one writes. liberals just wanted obama to grow a spine and campaign far more fiercely for what he promised. another post that makes the same point. liberals want an intelligent president that knows when to compromise and when to bluff. so what do you think? why would you say liberals want a king instead of a president? >> first of all, don, why is your tie? i don't like speaking to you without a tie. this is cnn, not public access. let's go back to the issue right now. it's been a growing feeling by me, as i heard more famous liberals come out against president obama. matt damon, john cusack, jackson brown. a recent poll showed only 70% of liberals support president obama, the lowest level in seven months. it's all the same thing, he compromises too much, he's too much like a politician, too much wheeling and dealing. that's what a president does. what they want is something completely unrestrained by the constitution and checks and balances to do what he promised, come in day one and make a law. the only person that can do that is a king. that's why i said you don't want a president that lives within our constitution. you want someone that is a king that can make things happen. that's not our system, unfortunately for them. >> he ran on change. he said he was going to change the way things happened rather than being just a politician as you say. what do you say to that? >> i think president obama has made changes. and i don't want to get into this whole thing like i'm out here defending president obama. that's not my issue. my issue is at some point the far left sees they're a mirror image of the far right. herman cain said it, the tea party say it, they're cut from the same cloth. that's my point. it's contributing to the polarization in america. a poll this week said we've never been more polarized politically. >> here's the thing. i think that you can say whatever you want. i believe in freedom of speech, freedom of speech, freedom of speech. where i took issue, what's wrong with liberals criticizing the president? liberals should criticize the president. no one is above criticism. and don't you hate it when people on the right, no one on the right could do anything wrong. no one on the left can do anything wrong. the president can do no harm. if you say anything about the president, some people are like, i can't believe you talk about the president and that's all they tweet about is how much they love the president. something is wrong if you love every single