MARGARET TRUDEAU'S ANTI-MARIJUANA STAND SHOULD
RE-IGNITE DRUG DEBATE

I've never met Margaret Trudeau, though our paths have crossed. Once
in particular, it caused me an uncomfortable experience.

It happened in 1978 after Margaret was spotted at Toronto's El Mocambo
club where the Rolling Stones were recording songs for a new album.

Later, she invited the band to her hotel room "to drink, play dice,
smoke a little hash," as she subsequently revealed in her
autobiography Beyond Reason.

The media indulged in an orgy of speculation over the "scandal" and
the apparent break-up of Margaret's

six-year-old marriage to Pierre Trudeau.

She flew off next day to New York, while her husband had a press
conference in Ottawa.

I was assigned to the event, and received strict instructions from my
editors in Toronto: Trudeau was to be given no quarter; he must be grilled
about his suitability to remain in office.

The PM frequently did not hide his contempt for the Ottawa press
gallery. Even seasoned correspondents shrank from his acerbic tongue
and piercing eyes.

On this occasion, however, his handlers had roped him in. An
intemperate outburst could have wrecked his career. He was inwardly
seething, but his manner was calm and reasonable.

I forget precisely what my questions were, except that they were
personal and embarrassing, both to me and, no doubt, to Trudeau
himself. I do remember that he responded with such grace that a
subdued press corps quickly moved on to other topics, leaving only me
feeling foolish.

For Margaret, the failed marriage was just the start of a troubled
journey, which only in recent years has acquired a sense of purpose.

In Vancouver this week, she spoke frankly of her battle with mental
illness, telling reporters that giving up marijuana had been a key to
her recovery.

There she was -- the iconic flower-child of the swinging sixties, who
admitted she "loved marijuana" and started smoking it at "a young age"
- -- advising a new generation to give it up.

"Marijuana can trigger psychosis," she said. "Every time I was
hospitalized, it was preceded by heavy use of marijuana."

Margaret's message is a wake-up call to a society lulled into
regarding cannabis use as the norm -- an acceptable recreational hobby
that many believe should be decriminalized.

But that assumption may be changing, as research into more powerful
strains of the drug reveals previously unsuspected hazards.

For 25 years, Dr. Colin Mangham of Langley, a former advisor to the
B.C. government on drugs, has campaigned against a "libertarian"
approach to illegal drugs.

"What are young people to believe," he asks, "when the parents and the
law say one thing -- don't use the drug -- while politicians,
newspapers, everyone it seems, have a conflicting message?"

Given what Margaret Trudeau is now saying, perhaps that's a question
we should all be asking ourselves.