Having worked for multiple different parties, I certainly have a non-partisan stance here, but we certainly wouldn't want people of influence, whom we would rightfully look up to, talking about this in such a casual way or glorifying its use. We need to discourage use among young people.
I agree with Mr. Perron that we don't need to overstate the case, because then we're not credible and we don't want to be Reefer Madness.
If I were to send one message to the government, it's that we need to realize that we do not have only two choices when it comes to cannabis policy. We don't have to choose between legalization or incarceration and prohibition. There are many other policies in the middle.
We haven't talked at all about physician education on this, because I tell you, if we think parents are uninformed, we should talk to the people in medical schools and physicians on the actual health effects. We need to educate physicians so they can intervene early with young people when the young person goes to see their pediatrician. They can intervene early and ask the right questions about early cannabis use, because if we can stop the progression to addiction and stop it when it's lighter and supposedly in casual use, we will save much more money and heartache than dealing with it down the road when someone has severe addiction and needs full treatment. We need a robust education campaign, not only for parents and young people, but also for physicians and those of influence to be able to change this.