Thank you very much, Chairperson, and thank you to all of our presenters for being here today. I particularly appreciated hearing the comments that Dr. Tony George just made, because I think they help give us some context about the issue we're dealing with.
Just as sort of a preamble, I would think it's fair to say that most drugs, whether they're legal or not, whether they are prescription drugs or what we have deemed as illicit, pose risk. Most times when you get a prescription, there are warnings such as “don't do this” or warnings about operating machinery, driving a car, and being alert. I think there is a very important principle here, and that is to understand that all substances, whether alcohol, tobacco, licit drugs, or illicit drugs, pose risks. Some are greater and some are lesser. It's really the context and the relativity of what we're talking about that are, I think, important.
For heaven's sake, even driving a car is probably the most dangerous thing we do every single day, which is why we have rules and regulations about driving and wearing seat belts.
I have two questions I'd like to get at. One is to further discuss the question of the relative harm of marijuana use compared with, say, alcohol use or smoking.
For example, let me ask the three witnesses on videoconference, particularly Dr. Le Foll and Dr. George, how many people die from using marijuana. Do we know that?
I think, Dr. Le Foll, you said that no one dies from overdoses. Can you put that into context with us, say in terms of alcohol? How many people die from drinking too much alcohol? What is the death rate?
In terms of addiction, what is the relative difference there; which of these substances would you say are more harmful? I think this issue, as Dr. George just said, is really about managing the risk and mitigating the harms. Could you address that, in terms of the harms of marijuana relative to alcohol and smoking particularly?
Secondly, how much does prohibition itself contribute to the harms we look at? You spoke some about youth and what that means. It seems to me that when we say it's taboo and that there is prohibition or zero tolerance, while in reality people do use marijuana, whether recreationally or medicinally, without any rules or regulations or any real information, it's all based on fear and not being able to come forward, so that there's a huge amount of stigma. How much does that contribute to the harms we see, particularly for young people?
Let me put these questions to the three folks on the videoconference.