Congratulations, Mr. Chair. I came late, and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your position and to thank our witnesses for coming here this afternoon.
I have a very basic question that may allow us to understand the problem better.
On the enforcement side, you have this group of people who abuse prescription drugs, you have those who commit criminal offences—obtaining them and then distributing them—and of course, you take appropriate actions. But now we have a group of people who would fall under prescription drug abuse because they go to the doctor and they somehow get hooked on the drugs. Technically, they don't do anything illegal, because they obtain drugs by getting a prescription from the doctor, or maybe from a few doctors if they wish to, and then they take them. And sometimes, if they have children or have some young people visiting, maybe they can get hold of the medication as well.
Now, how do you address that issue? The way I see it, there's really no criminal activity here, but the problem is here. So how do you address this? Do you have any examples, especially the RCMP, working with law enforcement agencies in different countries? Are there ways to limit it? Are there ways of approaching the problem that other countries have, other law enforcement agencies, and the medical profession as well?
I know it's very general, but it's a part of the problem that's not necessarily a criminal activity.