It would cause tremendous harm. There are, as has been suggested, 50,000 Canadian patients enrolled in our federal medical marijuana program. That is the tip of the iceberg of the actual Canadians who are using medical marijuana in Canada. The official estimates are that, among Canadians, between 500,000 and one million—about 2% to 4% of the adult population—currently use cannabis for medical purposes. So our program right now is protecting only a tiny proportion from arrest and prosecution. There's no doubt in my mind that those who are suffering from serious conditions, critically and chronically ill Canadians, would be negatively affected in a very significant way if they didn't have access to a safe source of cannabis.
I've had the opportunity and the privilege to work with patients for a number of years to see the way that it's changed some patients' lives, the way it allows them to live a richer life, the way it allows them to have more peace of mind and relate to their families better at the end of life because they get to use fewer pharmaceuticals, fewer pharmaceutical opiates in particular. It's been a remarkable privilege to be witness to people's healing and their better health outcomes when they use medical cannabis—which, by the way, simply isn't effective for everyone. It seems to help a percentage of the population, but another percentage of the population doesn't seem to benefit from the use of cannabis or doesn't respond well to it. In no way is it a panacea; it's not going to help everyone under every circumstance.