Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, everybody, for coming to the committee this afternoon.
I would like to start with a comment. Since we started this study, we've heard from several witnesses, every single one of whom has mentioned opioids. I assume that this is not the only thing abused by people, but I guess it's maybe the most common.
We talk about unintended consequences, we talk about misuse, abuse, and improper use of a prescription. If we talk about opioids, I'm surprised, because I think we're missing something—at least, I'm missing something. It may be that I don't understand the whole issue—it's hard to understand because it's so complex. Opioids have been around for almost 200 years as a medicine. I think the first time morphine was extracted was probably 200 years ago, more or less. Therefore, this is not a new issue nor should it be surprising. People have been getting addicted to opioids over all these years.
All these frameworks and guidelines we're talking about; those are fine, they deal with consequences. But what is the proactive action that we can take? You, as a doctor, or anybody who has to prescribe medicine to a patient, know this may cause an addiction, a situation that Mr. Barnes described—the fellow who had an injury and that's how he got hooked. People get hooked in different ways. We can do all the education campaigns we want; we do it for drinking and smoking, and to some degree I guess it works. I don't know if the problem exists in Canada, but in some countries, medical professionals get addicted to the very medicine they prescribe because they have access to it.
Can you comment on this? This is something that I think is the base of the problem we should be discussing. What do we do to stop addiction, not treat addiction, but to stop addiction?
I will hear from anybody, Mr. Chair.