I nearly cringed when Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch told me she would undo the forthcoming legalization of recreational marijuana, should she become the prime minister.

Leitch made this pledge to re-criminalize pot in an interview Tuesday afternoon, on my AM980 radio show, after expressing her opposition to the plans currently in the works by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, as announced by his health minister last week.

A pediatric surgeon by profession, Leitch said that marijuana should only be accessible to those in medical need of it, a departure from Trudeau’s position that the substance should be legal to all, but subjected to regulation and taxation.

“Let’s treat it like any other drug that is a heavy narcotic: Put it behind a pharmacy desk, make sure there’s a script so we know the potency of what people are receiving, and therefore (it) can be safely distributed to those who need it,” Leitch said.

She pointed to the documented health risks that marijuana poses to children and adolescents, and noted the hypocrisy in anti-cigarette campaigns by Health Canada, while the Trudeau government is normalizing pot.

Except the government isn’t leading the charge on mainstreaming marijuana; it’s reacting to a change that has been happening over generations.

I have never smoked pot, and I don’t particularly care for the smell of it. I’ve found myself twice in social situations where a joint was passed and have managed to avoid a third.

My own dislike of pot notwithstanding, it should be accessible to adults who want it — such as Trudeau — without the risk of prosecution.

The Conservative Party, whose members so often — and rightly — criticize the nanny state in other areas, would do well to not defer to this premise that the government needs to protect society from the horrors of marijuana.

As well-reasoned as Leitch’s objection to pot may be, from a medical point of view, with alcohol, tobacco, fast food and pop available on demand, access to pot, which seems to be uninhibited even under its criminal status quo, seems relatively benign.

While public opinion doesn’t necessarily dictate morality, the hard line drawn by Leitch does reinforce the old “Conservatives are out of touch” trope.

Within the conservative movement, her position also underscores the sad reality that libertarians are a rare breed in elected office.

As someone who adheres to socially conservative standards but doesn’t believe in the state imposing them on others, I find myself aligning with libertarians on most issues.

Most of them have abandoned the Conservative Party (in fact, I know a few of them were chanting ‘told you so’ after my Leitch interview.)

Fellow leadership candidate Maxime Bernier, heralded as the sole voice for libertarians in the Conservative Party, tacitly opened the door to supporting Trudeau’s marijuana push, in a CBC interview April 16.

“I am more for it,” he said. “It depends how the government will do it. At the end, I will decide whether I will vote for it or against it. But I am more toward — for — that.”

If the Conservative Party wants to be relevant — especially in engaging younger people on the right, who are more drawn to libertarian philosophy — more voices like Bernier’s must emerge.

And yes, that means the Conservative Party of Canada must embrace a leader who supports the legalization of marijuana.

— Lawton is the host of the Andrew Lawton Show on AM980 in London, Ont.

andrew@andrewlawton.ca

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