Prime Minister Stephen Harper fielded questions on hot topics ranging from legalizing marijuana and Afghanistan to aid for Africa and the deficit in his first YouTube interview Tuesday night.

Almost 2,000 questions were submitted and the favourites by far concerned the legalization of marijuana.

Harper said drugs damage society.

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"We all need to make sure our kids understand, not just that our kids … hopefully not just understand the damage drugs can do to them, but they understand as well the wider social disaster they are contributing to if they, through use of their money, fund organizations that produce and deliver illicit narcotics."

Harper gave mostly the same answers he does to mainstream media during the 40-minute interview hosted by Google Canada.

"We will be able to balance our budget over basically a five-year term without raising taxes," the prime minister said in response to a question on the deficit.

Another question was whether the government will continue its current financial commitment to provide $2.1 billion a year in aid to Africa

"Over the next year, foreign aid will increase again and Canada will go up another eight per cent, very rapid growth. After that it will be flatlined," Harper said.

On Afghan prisoners, the PM repeated what he has said in the House.

"I think our men and women in uniform and other public servants have been doing a, you know, a good job in Afghanistan under extremely difficult conditions."

A lot of questions concerned the environment. For example, "Is your government willing to take the strong measures necessary to deal with climate change," and "When do you plan on getting serious about developing green energy solutions for Canadians?"

Harper replied: "That's why we're investing in things like carbon capture and storage. That's why we have, you know, we have the green infrastructure fund in our economic stimulus program."

Though the answers were not surprising, the format has worked for him in the past. A video of Harper belting out a Beatles tune went viral on YouTube last year, helping to soften his austere image and briefly boosting support for his ruling Conservatives.