If I may add, Madam Chair, I can provide some specific data on surveys that have been conducted. There are a few and I'll try to work through them quickly.
One is the Canadian alcohol and drug use monitoring survey, what we refer to as CADUMS. This is a general population survey of alcohol and illicit drug use among Canadians 15 years of age and older. According to the results in 2012, there was an estimated 410,000 Canadians who reported abusing a psychoactive pharmaceutical, including opioids, stimulants, tranquilizers, and sedatives. To refer back to one of the previous questions, we have incorporated questions in our national surveys to determine the extent of the issue of prescription drug abuse.
An additional survey is the youth smoking survey, a school-based survey of Canadian youth in grades 6 to 12. It captures information related to tobacco, alcohol, and drug use. That survey includes a little under 51,000 students who represent approximately three million youth. According to those results, in 2010-11, five per cent of students reported using psychoactive pharmaceuticals to get high.
There also was the Ontario student drug use and health survey, a population survey of Ontario students in grades 7 through 12. In 2011 the survey captured over 9,000 students. According to that survey, 14% of Ontario youth reported using an opioid pain reliever non-medically at least once in the past year.
The results of these surveys indicate that prescription drugs are the third most commonly used substances in the general population, and again, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, among youth they are only behind alcohol and marijuana. There are similar statistics that have come out of some studies in the United States for youth as well .