Experts call Harper’s pot comments ‘misleading’

‘No comparison’ between harms of marijuana, tobacco, public health experts say

Public health experts are slamming Stephen Harper’s assertion that marijuana is “infinitely worse” than tobacco, saying the remark has no basis in scientific fact.

The Conservative leader made the comment the morning after the final debate of the election campaign Friday night, during which he criticized Justin Trudeau’s proposal to legalize the drug.

Asked by a reporter on Saturday why he so strongly objected to the Liberal leader’s plan, Harper said there is “overwhelming and growing” evidence of “the bad, long-term effects” of marijuana use. Noting that authorities have spent decades trying to discourage tobacco use, he said “marijuana is infinitely worse, and is something we do not want to encourage.”

But according to Dr. David Hammond, while there are significant health risks associated with marijuana, there is “no comparison” between the dangers it poses and the harm caused by tobacco.

Hammond, who is the applied public health chairman at the University of Waterloo, said that between 30,000 and 40,000 Canadians die every year from tobacco-related causes such as cancer and heart disease, while deaths attributed to marijuana are “extremely rare.” He called Harper’s assertion that marijuana is worse than cigarettes “misleading.”

Dr. Robert Schwartz said each year tobacco kills more people in Canada than alcohol, motor vehicles, firearms, illegal drug use and HIV put together.

Tobacco causes much more damage to physical health, said Schwartz, the executive director of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit at Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Conservatives have aggressively attacked Trudeau for his stance on marijuana at least since 2013, when he admitted to smoking the drug while an MP.

The Liberal leader “wants to make smoking marijuana a normal, everyday activity,” a Conservative spokesman, Stephen Lecce, said in a written statement.

The Conservatives have emphasized a law-and-order approach to drug prevention, and in 2011passed a controversial law that set out mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offences.

The Liberals say they want to legalize and strictly regulate the sale of marijuana, arguing that prohibition has allowed criminal gangs to profit from its sale while failing to prevent young people from accessing it. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair has promised to decriminalize marijuana immediately if his party forms the next government.