Thank you very much, Chairperson.
Thank you, witnesses, for being here today. I think the presentations that you made were very interesting and articulate. I have a couple of questions.
First of all, I think it's clear that we do need to have a regulatory approach of some sort. I guess what we're going to be discussing when we finish our study is what that regulatory approach would look like.
Mr. Graham, what I take from your presentation is that NJOY wants to play by the rules, even if the rules don't yet exist. In fact, you're calling on us to make sure that the rules do exist.
I'm curious to know why you think it's taking so long. As I understand it, NJOY has been putting forward proposals. In fact, you gave your three recommendations. I didn't get them all, so it would be helpful if you actually would send in your brief, because I didn't get all the nuances of what you were saying. I'm curious to know if you can offer us any thoughts on why this is taking so long when, as a company, you have been wanting to have a legal pathway, as you call it. You want to have granted authorization, and you want to have a regulatory approach. I'll let you answer that.
Second, Mr. David and Mr. Wells, on hearing you speak, particularly Mr. David, I have to say that I have echoes in my head of the whole debate around natural health products, which many MPs are very familiar with. When you say you don't want to be regulated as a tobacco product under the tobacco control regulations, that you want to be separate, this is exactly what we heard on natural health products. In fact, we're still hearing that they didn't want to be associated with drugs. They wanted to be a separate category. I'm curious about that.
I do worry about the comparison to coffee. Coffee is actually the most common addiction in our society. It is a very addictive substance, although it doesn't harm you. Well, it can make your heart race; you can get heart arrhythmia from caffeine. The problem happens when you try to withdraw from caffeine. Anybody who's tried it will know how absolutely severe it can be physically. I understand where you're going with your comparison to caffeine, but maybe you want to come up with another comparison.
Those are the two questions.
Mr. Graham, I would also like to ask for any thoughts you may have about why this is taking so long, given that you've actually been pushing. Also, in terms of a new category, I think it would be helpful if you spelled out more of what you mean by a new category of regulation. You talked about general consumer products, but I don't think you were suggesting that it be under that. I think you were suggesting something separate.
Those are my questions.