In an interview conducted with the Toronto Star soon after he was named the Trudeau government’s point man on the proposed legalization of marijuana, Liberal M.P. Bill Blair was asked the obvious question and provided a succinct, straight up reply.

No. He had never smoked weed and in fact had never consumed any illegal drug, despite having had plenty of opportunities to do so over the course of his previous career.

In 2001, Portugal decriminalized heroin, cocaine and cannabis. It remains a crime to profit from the sale or distribution of illegal drugs, but the user was not criminalized for possession. If a person is found with less than a 10-day supply, they must meet a three-person Commission for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction, usually made up of a lawyer, a doctor and a social worker. The commission will recommend treatment, a minor fine or, as in most cases, no penalty at all.  

In 1990, one per cent of the Portuguese population was addicted to heroin. Portugal now has the lowest addiction rate of illegal drugs in all of Europe. After 14 decriminalized years, overall rates of drug use, drug addiction, drug overdose, HIV and accidental death have all gone down.

The licensed producers must be getting desperate if a recent op-ed appearing in the Toronto Star is any indication.

In it, the same boring, groundless accusations are once again levelled at dispensaries and compassion clubs.

Only this time, with a level of hysteria bordering on the absurd.

OTTAWA — Former Toronto police Chief Bill Blair will help lead the Liberal efforts to legalize marijuana.

Blair, who made the leap from policing to politics last year, has been tapped to help Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make good on an election pledge to reform current marijuana laws, which the Liberals argue don't work because too many Canadians wind up with a criminal record for possessing only small amounts of the drug.

OTTAWA -- Some members of the marijuana movement are concerned about the government's decision to make Toronto's former police chief a point man on legalizing pot, activist and former Liberal hopeful Jodie Emery said Friday.

Liberal MP Bill Blair, parliamentary secretary to Justice Minister Jody-Wilson Raybould, has been tapped to take a leading role on the file, working closely with the departments of Justice, Public Safety and Health.

"The minister of justice and her colleagues are confident that parliamentary secretary Blair's experience and background in public safety will be a great asset to the government's work to ensure a careful and thoughtful approach to the legalization and regulation of marijuana," said Justice spokesman Andrew Gowing.

OTTAWA—MP Bill Blair, the former Toronto police chief now leading the Trudeau government’s marijuana legalization project, says provincial liquor stores may be the most reasonable place from which to control legal cannabis sales because of the ability to restrict youth access to the drug.

Blair, as parliamentary secretary to Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, has been asked to craft the government’s policy, working with a three-member cabinet team and a federal-provincial-territorial task force that hasn’t yet been struck, the justice minister’s office said.

Is marijuana kosher? If it's medicine, it doesn't matter.

That's the message from Canada's largest kosher certification agency after its board of rabbis held a debate on whether to certify cannabis oils as kosher.

The Kashruth Council of Canada met Thursday to discuss an application from MedReleaf, a licensed producer of medical pot. The meeting followed news in the U.S. that a New York company would soon offer certified kosher medical cannabis products.

But after "a lot of interplay and exchange," the Kashruth council decided the Jewish faith doesn't require sick people to consume kosher medicine, said managing director Richard Rabkin.

Could Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's plans to legalize cannabis in Canada become derailed by international treaty disputes? The Canadian Press broke a story earlier this week that has politicians and commentators talking about that possibility. But it could prove to be a rough patch rather than a roadblock.

Legalization has always been framed as a domestic issue. That changed Jan. 5 when the Canadian Press obtained a briefing note prepared for the prime minister. The note warned that Trudeau must prepare to explain to the world how he will legalize cannabis while also conforming to the nation's obligations to international drug treaties, which restrict access to cannabis in Canada to medical use and scientific research.

The United Nations treaties in question are:

RCMP officer John Spaans was just trying to enjoy a nice vacation, but people kept calling his cellphone to ask for drugs. “They were very persistent,” he tells BuzzFeed Canada, adding that some sent text messages with their orders.

“For quite some time I’d been getting wrong number phone calls, and getting asked for people I don’t know,” said the officer, who is with the Boyle RCMP detachment in Alberta.

But it was during his vacation in the U.S. that callers started using slang to indicate they were trying to buy drugs. The people had no clue they were calling a Mountie.

“They probably felt I was being hard to get because I didn’t want to do business with them,” Cpl. Spaans said.