POT TV – CTV Justin Trudeau discusses marijuana legalization. On why the federal government chose not to decriminalize marijuana while it works on legalizing it:
We saw a string of police raids and arrests across Toronto, through the pot dispensaries. This was a mess, that a lot of people think could have been side stepped, had your government decriminalized marijuana while working on the framework to legalize it. Now if your government concedes that this shouldn’t be a crime, why is the current law still being enforced?
“The reason why legalizing marijuana is the right step for us is because of two things: One, it will be make it harder for young people to access marijuana, because whatever you say about marijuana compared to alcohol or cigarettes, we know that the impact on the developing brain is something we need to prevent. Right now, young people have easy access. Controlling and regulating it will make it more difficult for them.
“Two, we need to remove the criminal element –streets gangs, the organized crime – from the sale of marijuana. Regulating it and controlling it will do that.
“Decriminalizing does absolutely nothing on either of those two things. If you decriminalize it, you make it easier for kids to access it. Decriminalize it, you continue to have organized crime controlling marijuana. That is counter to why we want to do it. That is why decriminalization has never been interesting to us.”
