Madam Speaker, that is an excellent question. First, we must not normalize marijuana. That is the first thing to understand. People need to be reminded that it is a drug, and a dangerous one at that.
Again, I met some high school kids who were 15 and 16. In Canada, it is illegal to consume alcohol before the age of 18. I asked those students whether any of them had consumed alcohol. Unfortunately, every one of them raised their hands. Alcohol is a legal and controlled substance and young people have access to it anyway. It is therefore not true to say that by legalizing marijuana, we are going to limit how much access young people have to drugs.
However, I completely agree with my colleague on decriminalization. Young people end up with a criminal record for possession of marijuana either because of bad experiences, bad influences, or simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am in favour of decriminalizing marijuana. This would give police officers other options, like fines or what have you, when confronting young people in possession of marijuana. The onus is reversed when it comes to fines versus criminal charges.