On Tuesday, March 16, Stephen Harper sat down to a Canadian political first — a Prime Ministerial YouTube interview. Nearly 200,000 votes were cast for thousands of questions.

Now, considering the medium for this session I think most of us can guess what the top voted question would be concerning, no? Well, for all you living in Canada’s “drug free zones” I’ll fill you in: “A majority of Canadians, when polled, say they believe marijuana should be legal for adults, just like alcohol. Why don’t you end the war on drugs and focus on violent criminals?”

Stephen, like any great sophist, began by questioning the legitimacy of the sources that the curious Canadian was speaking of and replied that, “There are different polls on this subject that show different things.”

Immediately after this he veered the question into emotion land and began speaking of his concern for his two young children and the kind of environment his wishes for them to grow up in. A perfect way to avoid answering what was really being asked, if I do say so myself.

Keep in mind that I am fully aware of the “preaching to the choir” aspect of discussing marijuana with a university student body. However, this article is not about that, rather it is concerning the failure of our Prime Minister to offer a coherent argument for his stance on the subject.

Harper goes on to note — by some kind of intense witchcraft and wizardry — that legalizing marijuana would increase the violence created by the drug trade and international cartels. I will not go into the hundreds of sound arguments that indicate otherwise, but we really must give this man a tip of the cap for keeping a straight face when spewing this nonsense.

To think the man who sat on a stage and sang “I get high with a little help from my friends” could spread such misinformation. Clearly, we do not have a friend in the current government of Canada.

Harper continued with his flawless logic: “The reason drugs are illegal is because they are bad. And even if these things were legalized, I can predict with a lot of confidence that these would never be respectable businesses run by respectable people.”

So, following this line of reasoning, it would be fair to say that alcohol, tobacco or any other legal drugs are inherently good because of the fact the are legal? Sweet. Now that I’m aware of this bit of information I’m off to drown myself in liquor, all the while knowing I will remain a reputable man.

Prime Minster Harper’s answer to the top voted question was laughable. How I wish I could have been there to point out the true nature of what was being asked. He did a perfect tip-toe around it offering only fluff and deception. It is such a shame that this medium was deemed democratic. He was allowed to shrug off the question as nonsense because of the undemocratic nature of this session. Democracy is not question-and-answer, or vote every once in a while. Democracy is action and dialogue!

Now, stop smoking pot my fellow students, for God’s sake. Don’t you want to remain respectable human beings?

– Article from The Sheaf.