That's a very difficult question for me to answer, because I'm not sure what the whole approach entails. I'll give you a generic version of what I think we should be doing.
Number one, I think there needs to be a firewall between pharma and doctors. In other words, pharma contributes to funding for research and education of doctors, but that should be a common fund that helps to educate. They do not direct the education. It comes from individuals such as Dr. Kahan and Dr. Persaud, who can provide evidence-based information to train our doctors.
Secondly, the prescription issue itself needs to be controlled.
Thirdly, you mentioned stigma. I think that is a huge factor that is lacking.... As we've talked about before, stigma is massive, and it needs to be addressed. The level of ignorance.... I have doctors not doing surgery on my patients because they're on methadone, doctors making excuses not to do it. I have nurses telling my pregnant patients that they shouldn't be on methadone, when in fact we know that this is a safe, effective, and recommended treatment. I have other addicts who tell my patients that because they're on methadone, they're not really clean and sober.
That's just within the people who should know better. When it comes to the public...and I've heard some questions in this forum that indicate clearly there's a great deal of misinformation out there. I think that's what this government needs to direct its attention to in order to educate people on what is going on and to educate them correctly, through people like me, like Dr. Kahan, etc., and like Lorinda, people who have been there and done that, who are in the trenches, and who can really explain to people what's going on. We would invite you to come to our places of work to see that.