Health advocate says pot legalization ‘scary’

It’s scary. We’re going too fast. We need to protect our children.

Healthy lifestyle advocate Pierre Lavoie, whose namesake Grand défi walks took place this weekend, said he doesn’t want to sound alarmist, but he believes that legalizing cannabis undoes the good he has been doing in Quebec for the last 10 years.

He said the federal government should have been content with decriminalizing cannabis and then waiting a year to even consider legalizing it, to better analyze the impact on young people.

“It’s scary. We’re going too fast,” Lavoie said in an interview.

“We need to protect our children.”

As well, he said he’s fully in favour of Premier François Legault’s plan to raise the legal age for consuming and buying cannabis from the federal government’s limit of 18 to 21.

He said he hopes all levels of government will watch legalization closely.

“And if we see overall that this legalization is not beneficial and problems are arising, that we could roll some of it back.”

Lavoie weighed in on the newly legal drug as 75 cities prepared to participate in this weekend’s La Grande marche du Grand défi Pierre Lavoie, in partnership with the Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec.

Over Saturday and Sunday, more than 50,000 were expected to participate in the five-kilometre challenge in support of better health through an active lifestyle. Presse Canadienne