Thank you, witnesses, for coming to the committee this morning.
Mr. Chair, I would like to direct the first question through you to Dr. Skinner.
Doctor, I've been on the committee for some time and on this study since we began it. A lot of the information we've heard today and most of the witnesses who appeared spoke about opioids. There must be some misuse or abuse of other prescription drugs, but on opioids I'm a bit confused. It seems to me there's some kind of a vicious circle, a catch-22 situation that includes patients, doctors, drug manufacturers, and the regulators at different levels of government. At one point, for the patient to get a drug, it is a doctor who prescribes it.
Doctor, how can we break that vicious circle? The statistics you provided about the number of deaths exceeding the number of people killed in car accidents, it is tragic. At one point there is a doctor prescribing a drug that's addictive and some people get addicted. Opioids have been known for more than a hundred years. Where is the problem?