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I’m not sure why it isn’t bigger news, at time of writing, that Justin Trudeau now publicly supports the legalization of marijuana. (He actually publicly supported it in February, Mr. Trudeau’s adviser Gerald Butts pointed out on Twitter, but somehow it was even smaller news then.) He had already found his way to supporting decriminalization, and had previously articulated the case for legalization. But he has now adopted that case and expressly repudiated decriminalization.

“I’m actually not in favour of decriminalizing cannabis,” he told an audience in Kelowna, B.C., this week (though later, in one of his trademarked “clarifications,” he said he might support decriminalization as well). “Tax it, regulate. It’s one of the only ways to keep it out of the hands of our kids because the current war on drugs, the current model is not working. We have to use evidence and science to make sure we’re moving forward on that.”

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The Conservative government questioned whether Trudeau has the judgement to be the prime minister.

“These drugs are illegal because of the harmful effect they have on users and on society,” the party wrote on its website. “We will continue protecting the interests of families across this country.

“Our government has no interest in seeing marijuana legalized or made more easily available to youth.”

To support their argument, the Conservatives cited statements from the Canadian Police Association, a former RCMP commissioner, the Drug Prevention Network of Canada, and a criminologist from the University of the Fraser Valley.

“I did a lot of listening, a lot of reading and a lot of paying attention to the very serious studies that have come out, and I realized that going the road of legalization is actually a responsible thing to look at and to do,” Trudeau said during a stop at Vancouver’s English Bay.