Health committee  I'm not sure how much I can help you with that in terms of strategies that have worked. We do know that we need more education of health professionals in the educational environment, and we do know that we need more education of the public, but I'm afraid I can't give you specifi

Health committee  I think you're absolutely right. Opioid addiction has been around for a long, long time. I think in the last decade we have seen prescription opioids overtaking heroin on the street as the opioids of choice for addiction because they are so readily available. Recently we've seen

Health committee  I would suggest that the changes in Ontario actually save the taxpayer over a billion dollars a year. That's the net effect.

Health committee  I was told I wasn't allowed to talk about medical marijuana, but now that you've brought it up, I would like to say something. I think it's absolutely abominable the way the federal government has dealt with medical marijuana. In fact, it was a divisional court decision that sug

Health committee  Well, I can't speak explicitly for other jurisdictions, but we do know there is a huge need for education. If we look at medical school and the residency curriculum around the management of chronic non-cancer pains, it's woefully lacking. I can't speak for other specialties, but

Health committee  It won't be a simple solution.

Health committee  Well, I can tell you from the regulatory perspective that colleges have come together to produce recommendations, or in the case of the guidelines, to produce the guidelines along with the stakeholders. Everyone has a role, and I think one group can't do it alone. So when we lo

Health committee  I would just highlight, as Dr. Mock did, the Canadian opioid use guidelines for chronic pain. They have been developed using current literature. They're being kept up-to-date by McMaster and more recently have been validated in an American journal as a comprehensive valid set of

Health committee  I hope I can disavow myself of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Thank you.

Health committee  Thank you very much. I'm Rocco Gerace, and I'm pleased to be here as the chair of the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada. With me is Louise Marcus, who is the director of professional affairs. FMRAC is the voice, both nationally and internationally, of the