Veterans Affairs committee  That's a great question. We're still learning. We probably know much more about its effects on the brain. We do know that many of the components in tobacco are also in cannabis, including some potential carcinogens. That's why I like hearing this discussion about alternatives to

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm listening to this and I completely agree with what patients are saying. On the other hand, we want to make sure that what people are saying is supported by the facts. I'll give you an example. In the mental health field, anecdotes and some preliminary studies have suggest

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a very important question. Cannabis affects on anxiety is somewhat indeterminate, whether it be within the context of PTSD or independent of that: generalized anxiety, panic anxiety, etc. The preponderance of the studies has been not well-done one-time assessments, what

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be able to speak in front of this committee on veterans. I'm a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and an addiction psychiatrist. I think the previous speaker covered a little bit of what I wanted to say. I have bee

Health committee  Yes. There are one or two studies now that have looked at people with schizophrenia who either use substances or not and the risk of violence. The overall message from those studies is that 90% of the violence committed by people with schizophrenia is under the influences of su

Health committee  I do not prescribe marijuana. I'm not licensed to do that. I have had some clinical situations where I have had patients with mental health disorders who were heavy cannabis users, and I tried to put them on other cannabinoid drugs such as nabilone, which is Cesamet, in trying to

Health committee  No.

Health committee  In terms of legal...?

Health committee  No, I don't think we want to do that directly, but I think we need to educate about harms.

Health committee  In my statement I said that there are particular subsets of the population, young people, and those in particular who may be at risk of psychiatric disorders, where I think we could have a bit of a coalescence of views. I think if there was a ticketing system that diverted people

Health committee  I think it probably depends on how it's done. The probable path is that legalization would suggest there's some need for control. I suppose commercial interests would probably respond to assisting Health Canada and the Canadian government by ensuring that, in a legalized framewor

Health committee  Maybe I'll speak to the issue of prohibition and whether that increases harms. Dr. Le Foll nicely pointed out that of the folks that try cannabis, only about 10% go on to become addicted to it or dependent on it. That's much lower than with tobacco, which is about 30% to 32%, an

Health committee  Yes, thank you to the Chair and the members of the committee for allowing me to speak. In fact, my colleagues Doctors Le Foll and Mizrahi have covered a lot of background that I think is very relevant to understanding addiction risk with cannabis and also its mental health affect