Health committee  No, it's just that alcohol is directly linked to violent crime, to risky behaviour—

Health committee  Yes, the suggestion is that cannabis users can actually cut down or quit—

Health committee  I think that from a net harm-benefit ratio they'd have better health outcomes using cannabis than they would nicotine.

Health committee  That would be ideal and wonderful, but I think that in society and in our world we realize that before people can take those steps that would perhaps be preferable to some or to society as a whole, sometimes they need harm reduction in order to be able to get to that point.

Health committee  As you say, through the MMPR there are ratings now of THC and CBD on cannabis strains. For years, we didn't have access to that. What patients have been doing for years and frankly for generations is they've been using self-titration, which is basically starting at a low dose and working up until they find a therapeutic window that's effective for them.

Health committee  The fact is that there are a lot of treatment modalities around medical cannabis that have been proven through clinical trials. We have a study—

Health committee  Well, there is very little monitoring going on there, and I've suggested in the past at consultations with Health Canada that what we really need is a pharmaco-vigilance program around the medical cannabis program that would allow the tracking of patients. I had a recent conversation with Dr.

Health committee  Well, cannabis is tightly regulated, that's why we have an MMPR program. Access to cannabis is much more challenging than access to any commonly, potentially more dangerous pharmaceuticals.

Health committee  I'd be happy to. As you say, Marinol, Cesamet, and Sativex are the commonly prescribed alternatives to raw cannabis. Marinol and Cesamet are single agents. One of them is an actual THC molecule, and the other one is a synthetic THC mimic. All of the research that's been conducted looking at single agent mimics have found them to be less effective in terms of treatment modalities than whole-plant cannabis.

Health committee  Like any document, before it appears, it's a little behind the times. It doesn't capture the last three or four years of research, and clearly it focuses more on potential harms than on actual medical efficacy. The amount of science that's being presented now on the potential benefits of medical cannabis is remarkable.

Health committee  I think that we've mentioned some of the conditions that I think are the most promising and the most challenging to treat that we can look at with cannabis. There is ongoing cancer research around the world including on its relieving effects and the anti-tumourific and anti-carcinogenic effects of cannabis and cannabinoids, including tumour reduction in glioma patients, breast cancer patients, and breast cancer cell lines.

Health committee  Thank you very much, Madame Chair. I just have to ask Dr. Walsh if he wouldn't mind stepping over here and working the French side of my presentation, because I only have so many hands. If we could set the time when I begin that would be great. Thank you, Madame Chair. My name is Philippe Lucas. l'm a Ph.D. student in the University of Victoria's social dimensions of health program, a graduate researcher with the Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia, and vice-president of Patient Research and Services at Tilray, is a federally licensed medical cannabis company located in Nanaimo, B.C.