Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says reaction to his admission he smoked pot once after becoming an MP shows the government is "offside from public opinion."

Trudeau said in an interview published Thursday that he smoked marijuana about three years ago, after becoming an MP, and also revealed his brother Michel faced a possession charge before his death in an avalanche.

Trudeau said his brother's legal trouble over a small quantity of marijuana was one of the experiences that influenced what he has called an "evolution" in his thinking on marijuana laws.

Trudeau downplayed his use of pot when speaking with reporters in Quebec City on Thursday.

"I have not taken other drugs, I have been in my past a very rare user of marijuana, I think five or six times in my life that I've taken a puff — it's not my thing. I think I'm in more trouble for admitting that I don't drink coffee on social media today.

"But the reality is that this is an example where we have a government that is completely offside from public opinion from even where the chiefs of police are from what we saw in their announcement yesterday," Trudeau told reporters in Montreal on Thursday

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/08/22/pol-michel-justin-trudeau-marijuana-pot-huffington-post.html