TRANSCRIPT: LARRY KING INTERVIEWS BILL MAHER

KING: Oakville, Ontario, hello.

CHAMNEY: Hi, Mr. Maher, I'm absolutely thrilled to be speaking with
you.

MAHER: Well, I'm thrilled to be talking to you, too.

CHAMNEY: My question for you is, do you plan on staying behind the
marijuana mission?

I don't know if you've realized...

MAHER: I do.

CHAMNEY: But you've saved peoples' lives up here in Canada and the
United States. It was because of you discussing it on TV and a Web
site called The Marijuana Mission that made my family understand what
marijuana does for people. And it actually stopped my grandma's
seizures. So, I'm no longer considered an epileptic just because I
smoke it every day. And I appreciate you so much. And we talk about
you up here all the time. You should run for Congress, sir.

MAHER: Thank you.

CHAMNEY: You remind me so much of my lawyer Alan Young, and he is the
greatest one up here speaking about marijuana and you keep on talking
down there, buddy.

MAHER: You keep puffing as the president said, let's roll. It's a good
opportunity for me to bring up Tommy Chong. Tommy of "Cheech and
Chong," you know he's in jail right now. He was...

KING: I didn't know.

MAHER: On the anniversary of 9/11, that's how brazen this Justice
Department is. On the anniversary of 9/11, they arrested Tommy Chong
for selling bongs over the Internet, Larry. We cannot allow that to
happen. Do you feel safer? Do you feel safer now?

This is what I would like to say to the Bush administration about
that. You can't have it both ways. Either 9/11 was such a transforming
event and is such a dire threat that we need the Patriotic Act, the
Patriotic Act II which could curtail a lot of civil liberties that we
need to go to Iraq or you can bust Tommy Chung. You can't it have both
ways. You can't have the Patriotic Act and curtail the civil liberties
because 9/11 was that bad and also have the time to go after Tommy
Chung for selling bongs on the Internet. Can't have it both ways.

KING: You favor the legalization?

MAHER: Of course. Another no-brainer. There's a religion out there,
too, having to do with drug laws. It's also nonsense.

KING: You'd legalize all drugs?

MAHER: I would. Yes. But obviously other drugs, it is a different
situation, because other drugs can be very dangerous. But there's
something more dangerous than OxyContin. It's called the hillbilly
heroin, because it's like heroin. No wonder it's popular.

KING: We'll be back with our remaining moments with Bill Maher. He
returns to "Real Time With Bill Maher" January 16 at a new time, 8:00
p.m. Eastern. We'll be right back.