Regulating pot benefits kids, Margaret Trudeau tells educators
Marijuana was “the beginning of my self-medicating,” PM’s mother says in speech to schools conference, reflecting on her struggles with bipolar disorder.

Thestar.com
April 2, 2016
By Kenyon Wallace

Margaret Trudeau, mother of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, used a speech at a Mississauga Catholic high school Saturday to advocate for the regulation of marijuana.

In a wide-ranging and unvarnished talk about her decades-long battle with mental illness, the best-selling author and former wife of prime minister Pierre Trudeau, stressed that evidence shows that marijuana is damaging to children’s brains.

“This is one of the reasons why we really have to get hold of marijuana and regulate it,” she told a gymnasium packed with educators and staff at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Secondary School, where she was the keynote speaker at the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board’s annual equity conference.

“All evidence shows that children under the age of 18 should not smoke marijuana. It’s very bad for the development of their brain. After 18, go ahead!” she said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

Trudeau’s comments come at a time when her son’s Liberal government is working on a controversial plan to legalize the drug.

When asked by the Star if she had ever advised her son on mental health issues now that he is prime minister, Trudeau refused to answer, saying, “It’s about mental illness, not about Justin Trudeau.”

Former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, now the MP for Scarborough Southwest, has been tasked by Justin Trudeau to head up the Liberals’ project to legalize marijuana, an undertaking that has so far done little to address public safety concerns, save for floating the idea that the drug might one day be sold in provincial liquor stores.

During her speech, Trudeau, 67, recalled that she took to marijuana “like a duck to water” shortly after being introduced to the drug in the late 1960s.

“It was the beginning of my self-medicating my little brain,” she said of her attempts to control her then undiagnosed bipolar disorder. “I didn’t know what depression was, I didn’t know about mania. I knew very little at that time.”

By the end of 1973, she had married Pierre Trudeau, the 15th prime minister of Canada, after the pair had dated privately, and had two boys, Justin and Sacha.

It was about three weeks after Sacha was born that Trudeau said her illness was beginning to seriously impact her family life.

“I just felt so sad, so sad. And I had no reason to be sad,” she said. “I had a wonderful husband, I had a beautiful child, another newborn, I had very little responsibilities. I really could indulge myself with just being the best mom ever, and yet I didn’t want to get out of bed.”

A visit to a psychiatrist with her husband left her without a diagnosis, as the doctor chalked up her emotional state to “hormonal fluctuations.”

Following the 1974 federal election, a resounding success for Pierre Trudeau - who Margaret pointed out proudly did not get as large a majority as their son did in 2015 - the stress of being a prime minister’s wife, combined with her bipolar illness, was overwhelming.

Trudeau told the crowd of a number of ensuing escapades as she went through the throes of mania, including a trip to Crete and an infamous encounter with the Rolling Stones at a Toronto hotel in 1977.

Years later, the loss of her son Michel, who died in an avalanche in B.C. in 1998, and the death of her ex-husband Pierre Trudeau two years later, would result in further bouts of debilitating depressions, psychosis and hospitalization.

But now, following several years of intensive treatment, Trudeau is winning, she said. Ultimately, hers is a story of triumph and hope.

Last month, U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledged her mental health care advocacy during her attendance at the state dinner for Justin Trudeau at the White House. The president’s comments prompted a standing ovation.

Trudeau finished her speech by warning about the dangers of blame and denial, while urging those who may be suffering from a mental illness not to be afraid to speak up.

“The good news - there is correction. You can correct your brain.”