During a debate in the House of Commons regarding issues Canada is facing with the incoming US President, Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre briefly squared off on cannabis legalization in Canada.

Amid a back-and-forth between the Prime Minister and the official leader of the opposition, with Poilievre challenging Trudeau on how he will manage Trump’s threats of tariffs on Canadian products, the Conservative leader suddenly pivoted to the subject of legalization. 

His comments appear to seek to conflate cannabis legalization, the only “drug” legalized by Trudeau’s Liberals, with the growing opioid crisis in Canada.

“The Prime Minister’s disastrous legalization and liberalization of drugs has the Americans worried that in addition to costing 47,000 deaths in Canada, where’s the plan to stop the drugs and keep our border open to trade?” asked Poilievre in a somewhat disjointed sentence.

In response, Trudeau asked, if “the leader of the opposition is suggesting that he wants to recriminalize marijuana, let him just say that.”

Poilievre’s comments were part of a broader conversation in response to recent comments by US President-elect Donald Trump, who has threatened to impose tariff’s on products coming into the US from Canada, China, and Mexico until those countries address issues with illegal immigration and the importation of illegal drugs into the US from those countries.

Conservatives in Canada have, at times in the past few years, tried to misrepresent cannabis legalization as part of a supposed plan by the Liberal government to legalize other harder drugs, but no such plans exist. With Health Canada’s approval, some provinces have implemented very limited decriminalization efforts for small amounts of some drugs, such as British Columbia famously did earlier in 2024. 

One Conservative MP, Arnold Viersen, who has said he would vote to reverse cannabis legalization if given a chance was sitting behind Poilievre in the video clip, in the top left of the screen in a blue jacket and red tie.

These programs, though, are not a form of “legalization,” but instead a prioritizing of law enforcement priorities against small amounts of personal possession. The legalization of cannabis, of course, implemented a regulated supply chain for a controlled product rather than simply removing existing criminal penalties.

Sarah Blyth, the founder of High Hopes, a community group providing access to medical cannabis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, says she finds such comments disappointing, but understands they are part of the election process for politicians. 

“Just saying ‘that a failure and they’re legalizing everything’ is easy to say, but it’s not what is happening,” says Blythe. “But it’s part of campaigning and getting votes, ust saying outrageous things and seeing if it will stick. It’s not anything new in politics.”

Connecting the legalization and regulation of cannabis with the opioid crisis also makes little sense, she points out, since cannabis is often used as an effective opioid substitute, something her own organization has years of experience with. 

“It’s unfortunate that a health crisis where so many are dying is being used for politics like this.

“If anything, cannabis is often helping people move away from harder things….[like] opioids. So connecting the two doesn’t make sense”

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