Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and a Manitoba food bank manager got into a somewhat tense exchange Thursday over the issue of marijuana legalization.
But there may be a twist — the woman is said to be married to the executive assistant to former public safety minister Vic Toews.
Trudeau, who announced in January that he backs pot legalization and told HuffPost Canada this summer that he smoked marijuana since becoming an MP in 2008, is currently in Manitoba as part of a nationwide tour. He was confronted by the woman in a Steinbach, Man.
A nearly five-minute clip was posted to YouTube by the website, Steinbachonline.com.
In the video, the woman says addiction is something she deals with on a daily basis and that the issue isn't about keeping pot away from kids since many in their 30s, 40s and 50s lose their lives to drugs.
Trudeau says that while he agrees pot isn't a health food supplement, Canada is currently losing the war on drugs.
"We're funneling billions of dollars into criminal organizations and gangs," he says."We're having our kids access pot easier than they're accessing alcohol and we need to realize the current prohibition just isn't working."
"So, the 50-year-old man that's life is broken, you think that it's easier for me to say to him the government supports the broken life that you have?" she asks, adding that more access will further the problem.
"And their lives are broken because of pot?" Trudeau asks.
When the woman says that weed is a gateway drug, Trudeau says that is why more needs to be done to regulate and keep it away from kids.
"So, my 16-year-old should have more access than what she already has?" the woman asks.
At this point, Trudeau seems to become frustrated, placing his hand on her shoulder and saying, "I've been listening to you, you need to listen to what I’m saying.
"You found your 16-year-old with marijuana? So the current approach isn't working to keep marijuana out of the hands of your teenager. And what I'm saying is if we control it, if we regulate it the same way we regulate or even maybe slightly tougher than alcohol, your 16-year-old won't have easy access to marijuana and that's what we both want."
After the woman says her daughter is also drinking alcohol provided by people of legal age, the Liberal leader says it sounds like an issue that goes beyond access.
Trudeau then states that $500 million is spent each year going after pot crimes, and that money would be better spent on addiction programs.
Toward the end of the clip, a man points out that the woman is married to Toews' assistant.
"Then your husband knows how the approach, being tough on crime in the wrong way, just doesn’t work," Trudeau says.
Also on HuffPost
Canadian Politicians Who Tried Pot
Rob Ford(01 of58)
Former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says he has had his fair share of marijuana."Oh, yeah. I've smoked a lot of it." (credit:CP)
Justin Trudeau(02 of58)
The federal Liberal leader opened up to HuffPost about his experience with marijuana in August."Sometimes, I guess, I have gotten a buzz, but other times no. I’m not really crazy about it.” (credit:CP)
Tom Mulcair(03 of58)
The Opposition leader's office told HuffPost this summer that Mulcair has smoked in the past but not since he was elected to office. Mulcair was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in 1994. (credit:CP)
Marc Garneau(04 of58)
The Liberal MP and Canada's first astronaut said he tried marijuana as a student in the 1970s in England. "It's not my thing. I stopped because it wasn't doing anything for me." (credit:CP)
Kathleen Wynne(05 of58)
The premier of Ontario said she smoked pot decades ago."I have smoked marijuana but not for the last 35 years." (credit:CP)
Darrell Dexter(06 of58)
Said the former premier of Nova Scotia: "Like every other person I knew back in the '70s when I went to university, some of whom are actually in this room, I would have tried it, the same as other people at that time." (credit:CP)
Christy Clark(07 of58)
Said the premier of British Columbia:"I graduated from Burnaby South Senior Secondary in 1983 and there was a lot of that going on when I was in high school and I didn't avoid it all together." (credit:CP)
Tim Hudak(08 of58)
The former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario admitted he's puffed in the past."I was a normal kid, I had a normal upbringing, a normal life in university. I experimented from time to time with marijuana. It’s a long time ago in the past and in the grand scheme of things." (credit:CP)
Paul Martin(09 of58)
The former prime minister of Canada told CTV News:"The answer is: I never smoked. I never smoked anything, but there was an earlier time, years ago, when (my wife) made some brownies and they did have a strange taste." (credit:CP)
Kim Campbell(10 of58)
The former prime minister admitted while running for the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives that she tried weed."And I inhaled the smoke." (credit:CP)
Dalton McGuinty(11 of58)
The former premier of Ontario said he experimented in his teens, but only twice. (credit:CP)
Brad Wall(12 of58)
The premier of Saskatchewan said he was an "infrequent" user back in university."It didn't really do anything for me, luckily, because for some, it does lead to other things." (credit:CP)
Snoop Dogg(13 of58)
The rapper's 18-year-old son, Corde Calvin Broadus, caused a stir when he shared this photo of him smoking with his famous weed-loving dad. (credit:Corde Calvin Broadus/Twitter)
Soulja Boy, Wiz Khalifa(14 of58)
Is that smoke, or a new Instagram filter? Soulja Boy tweeted a photo of what appears to be him and pal Wiz Khalifa smoking out a giant bong on Jan. 3. (credit:Soulja Boy/Twitter)
Chris Brown(15 of58)
"Oh don't worry," Brown wrote on this Instagram photo he shared in December, from Amsterdam. "It's medicinal!! Lol." (credit:Chris Brown/Instagram)
Rihanna(16 of58)
Dressing up as "The Bride of Mary Jane" (get it?) for Halloween wasn't enough. Rihanna shared this controversial picture at the start of the New Year, with the caption: "This nug look like a skull or am I just....?" (credit:Rihanna/Instagram)
Michael Phelps(17 of58)
Yup. That's Olympic Gold medalist Michael Phelps smoking out of a bong, published in the now-defunct British rag News of the World in 2009. (credit:News of the World)
Barack Obama(18 of58)
President Barack Obama has admitted to smoking marijuana and using cocaine during his high school and college days. "When I was a kid, I inhaled often," he once told magazine editors, according to The New York Times. "That was the point." (credit:AP)
Steve Jobs(19 of58)
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' use of LSD in his younger days is well-documented. He once called the experience "one of the most important things in my life." His use of the drug was even noted in an FBI background check, according to Wired. (credit:AP)
Bill Clinton(20 of58)
President Bill Clinton famously admitted to trying marijuana while completing his Rhodes scholarship at Oxford. "When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it," The New York Times reported in 1992. "I didn’t inhale it, and never tried it again.” (credit:AP)
Richard Branson(21 of58)
Virgin Group chairman and founder Richard Branson is an outspoken advocate of marijuana legilization, once writing an op-ed for CNN that called for an end to the war on drugs. He reportedly asked President Obama during a White House visit if he could "have a spliff" in 2012. "They didn't have any," he added. (credit:AP)
Michael Bloomberg(22 of58)
New York City Mayor and Bloomberg L.P. founder Michael Bloomberg found himself in hot water when he admitted to smoking marijuana back in 2002, The New York Times reports. When asked by a reporter if he had ever tried pot, he responded: "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." (credit:Getty Images)
Hugh Hefner(23 of58)
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner credits his use of marijuana later in life with changing his perspective on sex. "I didn't know what making love was all about for all those years," Hefner who supports legalization is quoted as saying in High In America: The True Story Behind NORML. "Smoking helped put me in touch with the realm of the senses." (credit:Getty Images)
George Soros(24 of58)
Billionaire investor George Soros is a known supporter of marijuana legalization and even wrote a 2010 Wall Street Journal op-ed rather straight-forwardly entitled "Why I Support Legal Marijuana." His use of the drug may be far less proflific, however. He told Reuters in 1997 that while he had "enjoyed" trying marijuana, "it did not become a habit and I have not tasted it in many years." (credit:Getty Images)
Jimmy Cayne(25 of58)
Jimmy Cayne, former CEO of Bear Stearns, kept an antacid bottle full of cocaine in his desk, according to the book The Sellout. (credit:AP)
Sarah Palin(26 of58)
The former vice presidential candidate and reality TV star told Anchorage Daily News back in 2006 that she couldn't "claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled,” CBS News reports. (credit:AP)
Bill Gates(27 of58)
Bill Gates, chairman and co-founder of Microsoft, hinted at once using LSD and marijuana in a 1994 interview with Playboy. Likewise, biographer Stephen Manes wrote that "Gates was certainly not unusual there [around drugs]. Marijuana was the pharmaceutical of choice…” (credit:Getty Images)
Larry Kudlow(28 of58)
Former Ronald Reagan economic adviser and current CNBC host Larry Kudlow is reported to have both smoked marijuana and used cocaine frequently at periods in his life. After being fired from Bear Sterns in the mid-1990s, Kudlow entered a rehabilitation program to deal with his cocaine addiction, according to New York Magazine. (credit:AP)
Naomi Campbell(29 of58)
Super model Naomi Campbell admitted in 2005 to abusing cocaine during her career. "I have admitted using illegal drugs and some years ago I recognised that I had a problem" she was quoted as saying in The Daily Mail. "I knew that it was wrong and had damaged me and I decided to try and sort myself out." (credit:Getty Images)
Peter Lewis(30 of58)
Peter Lewis, former CEO of Progressive Insurance, has both smoked marijuana and lobbied heavily for its legalization. After smoking weed recreationally in his youth, he started using it medicinally after his leg was amputated. “I was very glad I had marijuana," he told Boston Magazine. "It didn’t exactly eliminate the pain, but it made the pain tolerable — and it let me avoid those heavy-duty narcotic pain relievers that leave you incapacitated.” (credit:AP)
Arnold Schwarzenegger(31 of58)
Former California Governor and all around legend Arnold Schwarzenegger can be seen smoking marijuana in the 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron." He later said that he "did smoke a joint and I did inhale," CBS News reports. (credit:Getty Images)
Bernie Madoff(32 of58)
In a 2009 lawsuit, it was alleged that Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff frequently sent messengers to buy cocaine for "himself and the company." Actually, before Madoff's $60 billion Ponzi scheme fell apart, his office was known as "the North Pole" because of the allegedly excessive cocaine use during work hours, according to CNN. (credit:AP)
Aldous Huxley(33 of58)
Essayist and author Aldous Huxley is said to have experimented with hallucinogenics, even writing an account of his use of mescaline in "The Doors Of Perception." (credit:Alamy)
Al Gore(34 of58)
Former Vice President and climate change activist Al Gore is rumored to have smoked marijuana often in college. However, Gore characterized his marijuana use as "infrequent and rare," according to The Guardian. (credit:AP)
Maya Angelou(35 of58)
Best-selling author Maya Angelou reportedly "settled into a job as a waitress and began smoking marijuana with abandon" early in her life, according to a biography by Harold Bloom and Cindy Dyson. (credit:Alamy)
Ted Turner(36 of58)
CNN founder and Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner is rumored to have grown pot in his college dorm room, according to COED Magazine (he's reportedly also a major donor to the Kentucky Hemp Museum). After banning cigarette smoking at CNN in the early '90s, a memo emerged that claimed it "was common knowledge that Turner sits in his office and smokes marijuana." (credit:Getty Images)
Clarence Thomas(37 of58)
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas smoked marijuana "several times" in college, White House spokesman Judy Smith said back in 1991. (credit:AP)
Kary Mullis(38 of58)
Nobel Prize-winning chemist Kary Mullis credited much of his success to his use of LSD, according to Wired. (credit:WikiMedia:)
Angelina Jolie(39 of58)
"I have done just about every drug possible: cocaine, ecstasy, LSD and, my favorite, heroin."[The Mirror, 1996] (credit:Getty Images)
George Clooney(40 of58)
"I didn't live my life in the right way for politics, you know. I fucked too many chicks and did too many drugs, and that's the truth. That's gonna be my campaign slogan: 'I drank the bong water.'"[Newsweek, 2011] (credit:Getty Images)
Whoopi Goldberg(41 of58)
On smoking a joint to calm herself before winning her 1991 Oscar for "Ghost": "Smoking cigarettes and pot every now and then are my habits. And so I thought, 'I've got to relax.' So I smoked this wonderful joint that was the last of my homegrown. And honey, when [Denzel Washington] said my name and I popped up, I thought, 'Oh, fuck.'" (credit:Getty Images)
Sienna Miller(42 of58)
"I mean, I still love a waterfall or the odd hallucinogenic drug. I liked mushrooms, which were legal until a year or so ago. If I had a drug of choice, it would be magic mushrooms."[The Guardian, 2007] (credit:Getty Images)
Megan Fox(43 of58)
"I’ve done drugs, and that’s how I know I don’t like them. Cocaine is back with a vengeance. Everyone in every club is doing drugs. A lot of people are on prescription drugs. Celebrities aren’t trying to hide it, except where people have camera phones. ... I wanted to try several things and make an informed decision, but I didn’t enjoy anything other than marijuana. I don’t even think of it as a drug -- it should be legalized. I know about five people who aren’t on drugs today, and I’m one of them."[Maxim, 2007] (credit:Getty Images)
Joel Madden(44 of58)
“Without cigarettes, I would be doing heroin, probably, on a daily basis.”[Blender, 2007] (credit:Getty Images)
Oprah Winfrey(45 of58)
On doing cocaine with her boyfriend in the '70s while working as an anchorwoman in Nashville: "I did your drug. This is probably one of the hardest things I have ever said. ... I had a perfect, round, little Afro, I went to church on Sunday and I went to Wednesday prayer meetings when I could ... and I did drugs." ["The Oprah Winfrey Show," 1995] (credit:Getty Images)
Anthony Kiedis(46 of58)
"I spent most of my life looking for the quick fix and the deep kick. I shot drugs under freeway off-ramps with Mexican gangbangers and in thousand-dollar-a-day hotel suites. Now I sip vitamin-infused water and seek out wild, as opposed to farm-raised, salmon."["Scar Tissue," published 2005] (credit:Getty Images)
Drew Barrymore(47 of58)
"When I was 10 ½, I was sitting in a room with a group of young adults who were smoking pot. I wanted to try some, and they said, 'Sure. Isn't it cute, a little girl getting stoned?' Eventually that got boring, and my addict mind told me, 'Well, if smoking pot is cute, it'll also be cute to get the heavier stuff like cocaine.' It was gradual. What I did kept getting worse and worse, and I didn't care what anybody else thought."[People, 1989] (credit:Getty Images)
Nicole Richie(48 of58)
"I kind of took matters into my own hands and was creating drama in a very dangerous way. I think I was just bored, and I had seen everything. Especially when you're young, you just want more. ... At 18 I had just been doing a lot of cocaine."[People, 2007] (credit:Getty Images)
George Michael(49 of58)
"[Marijuana] keeps me sane and happy. I could write without it if I was sane and happy. ... This is the only kind of drug I ever thought worth taking."[ITV's "South Bank Show," 2008] (credit:PA)
Morgan Freeman(50 of58)
"Never give up the ganja."[The Guardian, 2003] (credit:PA)
Kirsten Dunst(51 of58)
"I've never been a major smoker, but I think America's view on weed is ridiculous. I mean, are you kidding me? If everyone smoked weed, the world would be a better place."[The Daily Mail, 2007] (credit:jpistudios.com)
Elton John(52 of58)
"I was consumed by cocaine, booze and who knows what else. I apparently never got the memo that the Me generation had ended."["Love Is the Cure: On Life, Loss and the End of AIDS," published 2012] (credit:jpistudios.com)
Frances McDormand(53 of58)
“I’m a recreational pot-smoker. ... There has never been enough of a distinction between marijuana and other drugs. In the classic, weird hygiene movies from high school, everything led to depravity -- marijuana, sex, coffee! There was no distinction made between the effects of one thing. So it’s always been lumped in with drugs in general. It’s a human rights issue, a censorship issue and a choice issue."[High Times, 2003] (credit:Getty Images)
Dennis Quaid(54 of58)
“Cocaine was even in the budgets of movies, thinly disguised. It was petty cash, you know? It was supplied, basically, on movie sets because everyone was doing it. People would make deals. Instead of having a cocktail, you’d have a line."[Newsweek, 2011] (credit:jpistudios.com)
Nicolas Cage(55 of58)
"I had a bag of mushrooms in my refrigerator. My cat used to sneak into the refrigerator and eat them. ... He ate them voraciously; it was like catnip to him. So I thought, 'What the heck, I better do it with him.' I remember lying on my bed for hours and Lewis was on the desk across my bed for hours, and we just stared at each other -- not moving, just staring at each other, and I had no doubt that he was my brother. But having said that, I don't do that anymore. And you know what? Later in life, when I was completely not doing any of that, I know he said 'Hi' to me." ["Late Show With David Letterman," 2010] (credit:Getty Images)
Johnny Depp(56 of58)
"I don't trust anyone who hasn't been self-destructive in some way. Who hasn't gone through some sort of bout of self-loathing. You've got to bang yourself around a bit to know yourself."[GQ, 2011] (credit:jpistudios.com)
Frank Ocean(57 of58)
"hi guys, i smoke pot. ok guys, bye."[Twitter, 2013] (credit:Getty Images)
Fergie(58 of58)
“I got into a scene. I started going out and taking ecstasy. From ecstasy, it went to crystal meth. With any drugs, everything is great at the beginning, and then slowly your life starts to spiral down. [I was] 90 pounds at one point.”["Oprah's Next Chapter," 2012] (credit:jpistudios.com)