Today Justin Trudeau admitted to smoking marijuana while serving as a member of the Parliament of Canada and, for the most part, Canada gave a collective shrug. It has, after all, been more than 20 years since Bill Clinton ‘didn’t inhale’ and Woodstock was almost 45 years ago.
In 2013, everyone knows that pot isn’t particularly dangerous. The laws against marijuana have become like those absurd laws the internet loves to list. Laws that make no real sense but that, for some reason, people haven’t removed from the books. Even while being illegal, marijuana is the 2nd largest industry in BC and that was before the state immediately to their south legalized it.
Admitting to smoking marijuana cost Justin Trudeau nothing. The only people likely to be upset or offended by it are people who were unlikely to vote for the Liberals anyway. He may have actually gained some support with the, estimated, 17% of Canadians who use pot (and admit to it), at least ocasionally, if we assume that those people would rather not go to jail or have a criminal record.
Trudeau has also earned bonus points with me for another reason. We live in an age where political scandal has become commonplace. On an almost daily basis we’re told of political leaders who steal from the public purse, commit fraud, cheat on their spouses and are generally caught with their pants down, their hands in the cookie jar or both. When they are accused they deny and when they can no longer deny they weep and apologize. It has reached a point where it is actually refreshing to hear a politician publicly own up to his vices, however minor. It is also safe to assume that Trudeau is not the only elected leader in Canada who uses illegal drugs, he is simply the only one to freely admit it.
Hopefully it won’t be too long before someone in Ottawa will finally get around to taking the absurd marijuana laws off the books. Perhaps some of our more cowardly, less honest leaders will take the, almost complete, lack of outrage over Trudeau’s confession as a sign that people are ready for a change.