One is the type of program.
There have been a variety of provincial programs in play across the country for many years, some of which have been very good. Some have been not so good. As a result, our organization, along with a number of partners, developed the national standards for youth drug prevention program so that if you're in Nanaimo or in Estevan and you want a prevention program in your school, the standards will guide you as to what is good evidence-based prevention. We know prevention works, just not any kind.
The standards, first and foremost, are the bedrock against which the investments in this area should be applied. Second, in terms of the kind of messaging for cannabis, that's the messaging we would be bringing forward. I think a concerted effort around cannabis is required—it's overdue—with a particular focus not so much on trying to convince anybody of one position over another; it is about simply providing the facts as we have come to learn as to what is the impact of the use, whether it be acute.... In other words: “I smoke a joint tonight. I'm 16 and I'm a naive new driver. What are the consequences?”
Dr. Porath-Waller can speak to you very clearly as to the impact on fatally injured drivers and road crashes. This is a road safety issue.
Two, longer term, as Dr. Smith has indicated, there is providing straightforward facts for both short-term and long-term effects. It is also to bring into play the broader notion of society, which is moving away from this for-or-against issue on cannabis to what it is we wish for our youth, which everybody subscribes to as being the future of this country, and how we equip them to be best at what they do.
That sometimes gets a little bit murky when we start talking about criminalization issues and the like, but in terms of its impact on health and on the brain, that's indisputable, I would offer.