Philpott at UN

Minister of Health Jane Philpott

REALity   Volume XXXV  Issue No.7 July 2016

Margaret Trudeau, mother of Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has acknowledged that she had been a heavy smoker of marijuana in order to self-medicate for her bi-polar mental condition. She said that every time she was hospitalized for her mental condition, it was preceded by her heavy use of marijuana.

Quitting marijuana, she admitted, was an important part of her recovery.

On April 2, 2016, Margaret Trudeau spoke at a Catholic High School in Mississauga, Ontario on marijuana, advocating that marijuana be regulated, even though she admitted “evidence shows that marijuana is damaging to children’s brains.”

But then, startlingly, after admitting her own personal problems with marijuana, she went on to say: “after 18 years of age, go head,” eliciting laughter from the crowd. Was she confused?  More than a little.

This contradiction on marijuana use seems to be part of her son, Justin Trudeau’s, policy as well.

On April 20, 2016, the federal Minister of Health, Jane Philpott, told the UN Special Session of the General Assembly in New York (UNGASS 2016), that legislation on marijuana will be introduced in the spring of 2017. Such a policy will breach three UN treaties on illicit drug use signed by Canada.  This doesn’t appear to be a problem for her.

Ms. Philpott held a private meeting for Canadian NGO’s during the UN meeting. At this meeting, Ms. Philpott stated that Canada would no longer be emphasizing the harms, rather, the benefits of waiting until age 18 to use pot!

Pamela McColl, a member of “Smart Approaches to Marijuana” (SAM), an international organization committed to science over propaganda on marijuana, and who represented the Drug Prevention Network of Canada (DPNC) at this meeting, personally spoke to Ms Philpott. She was utterly amazed by the Minister’s comments on the planned changes in the marijuana law.

Pamela stated:

I found the Health Minister in a quiet corner and approached her with a friendly smile, so she did rise to shake my hand and speak with me. Ms Philpott told me that they

[the government] would no longer be emphasizing the harms, rather the benefits of waiting till age 18, to use marijuana. I responded that, as a neuroscientist, I found this approach unwise because the brain is still developing and why would they want to interfere with that development (possibly as late as age 28 for males). She responded that they are doing it anyway, and by regulating they will have more control. I then asked her what she thought about the Colorado data showing an increase in youth use with legalization (+20% for those aged 12-17 and +46% for those 18 and over). She responded that she didn’t believe that data! We then talked about how it took 50 years to cut by half the use of the legal drug tobacco and that the other legal drug, alcohol, remains the leading problem drug in the world today. At that point she became a little irritated, said she was due on stage to give a talk, and excused herself.

Is it too much to ask the Trudeau government to have a coherent policy on marijuana? Apparently so.