Both are illegal but their penalties are different, much like killing someone vs punching someone. Assault vs murder. Both illegal, but carry different penalties. Not a great comparison, but I was going for a big contrast. Public perception of crack vs weed is also very different with a lot of people on board with legalizing weed (myself included). Trudeau admitted to doing it in the past whereas Ford is allegedly doing this now while he's in office along with a slew of other shady things with links to homicides included. He's a train wreck for sure and needs help on the personal side of things. If Trudeau told the public he fired up a blunt that morning in his office, I think you'd see a different reaction.
If I was advising Ford, I'd tell him to put an end to this now. Come clean, admit he has a problem, get it all out in the open now so that there's nothing left to be dug up and get into rehab. Do the rehab time, get better and come back a "changed" man. Considering what he's weathered already, he'd probably be able to pull that off and get re-elected. Would not surprise me one bit.