Stephen Harper dances around questions on marijuana reform and the hypocrisy of support from Rob Ford
Prime Minister Stephen Harper took a couple of grillings about drugs this week.
First, CKNW Radio's John McComb sparred with the Conservative candidate on marijuana and the party’s tough-on-crime positions that include mandatory minimum sentences for people caught growing pot plants.
The following day, Harper faced questions about former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, his brother, Doug, and their family’s public support for the Conservatives.
McComb’s interview, which aired on October 13, covered a number of topics. On marijuana, he began by asking about a claim Harper made about pot being “infinitely worse” than tobacco.
Harper doubled down on that statement and then directed McComb to “the science” that supports it.
“Can you point to any science?” McComb asked.
Harper could not.
“Not just on smoking,” he replied, “the health effects look up. Let Health Canada speak on that, the health effects, the medical community tell you, health how the effects of prolonged marijuana use like tobacco, smoking and everything else. You know look, our view is very straightforward. We don’t want to encourage our kids to get into marijuana.”
Harper then repeated his usual criticisms about Justin Trudeau and Liberal party promises to legalize recreational cannabis, which the Conservatives claim will make drugs more easily available to children.
McComb noted an increasing number of jurisdictions in the United States have begun to regulate marijuana sales.
“It’s not the direction we want to go,” Harper replied. “We want to obviously discourage non-medical use of narcotics. It’s a bad thing for people. We want to have programs that help people who get addictions, but we want to continue to crack down on people who sell substances that ruin people’s lives.”
Next, McComb suggested prohibition-style policies keep marijuana sales under the control of organized crime, thus creating an incentive for gang violence.
“Isn’t it true though that if you legalize it, you take it out of the hands of the guns and the gangs and the problems as we see here in Surrey and other places all the time?” he asked.
Harper’s response: “You know what, the drug business isn’t driven primarily by marijuana now. We’re also putting in resources, RCMP to deal with the growth of meth labs and synthetic drug products. I mean look, this is never going to be a business that is about creating addictions and wrecking people’s lives. It’s never going to be a respectable business. These things you know, like I said Jon, the reason drugs are illegal is because they’re bad. They’re not bad because they’re illegal. They’re illegal because they’re bad. They destroy lives and what’s what we want to avoid.”
McComb concluded the portion of the interview covering marijuana by comparing the drug to legal mind-altering substances such as alcohol.
“I know that it isn’t any worse than going home and having a drink of scotch or a glass of wine after work,” he said. “I know that as much.”
Harper returned to his point about marijuana’s adverse effects on health.
“As I say, I think the health studies are pretty clear that the effects are bad,” he said. “Well, we have to agree to disagree on that.”
Questions about Rob Ford came on October 14 at a Harper campaign stop in Brantford, Ontario, after it was announced the former Toronto mayor’s family was organizing a rally for this Saturday (October 17).
That prompted reporters to ask Harper how he reconciles his hard line against marijuana with his acceptance of support from the Fords, given Rob has admitted to smoking crack and Doug has said he has used marijuana.
“You are governing and campaigning as the law-and-order guy, yet you brought up Rob Ford, the former crack-smoking former mayor of Toronto, Doug Ford, who has admitted to smoking marijuana,” began Toronto Star reporter Tonda MacCharles. “Doug Ford is organizing a rally for you Saturday. So what’s up with that?”
Harper’s response: “I think our position on these issues is very well known and the support we’ve had from those individuals for our party is longstanding.”
Another reporter noticed that didn’t answer MacCharles’s question.
“You are coming out here with a platform that is tough on crime," the second journalist said. “Why do you want your campaign associated with a man who is a self-admitted crack smoker?”
Harper again dodged the question.
“Once again, our positions on these issues are very clear,” he said. “I’m not going to cast those kinds of judgements. Our platform is very clear, and the support of that family for our party is longstanding and well-known.”
Marijuana reform became a Canadian election issue after Trudeau came out in favour of legalizing the drug back in 2012.
NDP leader Thomas Mulcair also took a number of questions about marijuana this week.
For anybody who is still confused about marijuana reform ahead of this October's federal election, the Straight recently published a three-part series that explored the differences between the NDP and Liberal positions on the issue. If that sounds like too many words, we also have a summary of those articles: "Smoking out Canadian political parties' plans for marijuana reform: an election 2015 explainer".
Series: Marijuana reform in Canada's 2015 federal election
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