OTTAWA — The federal government has announced a $11.5 million, five-year program to discourage drug use among youth.

Wednesday’s announcement by Health Minister Rona Ambrose from Vancouver Island comes as a Conservative party ad campaign alleges that Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, who was in Vancouver on Wednesday, is effectively encouraging Canada’s youth to smoke pot. The Liberals have shot back with their own ads, attacking the Tories’ drug policy as “failed,” according to one report.

The Health Canada money will be used, in part, to educate “parents and prevention … on the impact of youth marijuana use on the developing brain,” according to a government release.

Ambrose was not planning to mention Trudeau in her public statements, according to an official.

“Today’s roundtable was about listening to experts and community members about what we can do better to prevent our children and youth from using drugs, and to further support people in recovery from addiction,” Ambrose said in a news release.

In October, Ambrose announced she was closing “loopholes” in a drug access program that permitted doctors to provide heroin to addicts who had exited a B.C. medication research program.

The announcement was followed by a Conservative fundraising letter, stressing that the Harper government was taking a hard line against drugs.

The Conservative party also launched an ad campaign in October focusing on the Liberal policy to legalize marijuana and regulate the trade.

“Justin Trudeau has a famous last name, but he lacks the judgment to be prime minister,” the Conservatives said in October. “His only policy priority so far is to promote the legalization of marijuana. He wants to make it available for sale, like alcohol and tobacco. But that would dramatically increase its availability to minors and send the message that recreational drug use is acceptable.”

The campaign ran in Punjabi and English and was targeted particularly at immigrant communities, Maclean’s columnist Paul Wells wrote Wednesday. (See video above or here)

In another report, Wells published the transcript of a Liberal ad now being played on radio stations in Cantonese, Mandarin and Punjabi: “In the past seven years of Stephen Harper and his Conservative government, our community has been flooded with marijuana. Justin Trudeau wants to tightly regulate marijuana, to keep it out of the hands of our kids and striking back at the criminals and gangs who distribute it. Stephen Harper’s approach has failed.

“We need a leader who is willing to tackle problems with solutions that actually work. Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are looking out for themselves. Justin Trudeau is looking out for us. He’ll be a prime minister with real priorities. Authorized by the Liberal Party of Canada.”

ARTICLE SOURCE National Post