Thank you.
The situation has changed a lot. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was certainly cocaine, at parties for example, on occasion. We were in no way seeing the addiction we've been seeing in the last three or five years.
After that, there were opioids. In Quebec, we have had needle exchange centres since the early 1990s. We did not see that this increased or encouraged drug use. On the contrary, we have seen a significant decrease in HIV and hepatitis C among people who used the services of these centres.
Then there was a decrease in the number of people using injection drugs in general. People switched to other drugs. For the past five or six years, this has been particularly the case with crystal meth. In my office, it's catastrophic. In my practice, in the gay community in downtown Montreal, this drug is the most damaging, along with the STI epidemic and HIV, diseases that have been mentioned.
We receive testimonials from people who have used crystal meth. They often tell us that, even if they want to stop, it has been so good sexually that they are dependent on it. Some people will rather tell us about their creativity, which is stimulated when they consume it. They wonder how they will ever be able to stop and whether they will be able to do so.
There are resources in hospitals at the emergency hospital centre. Then there are the resources for detoxification. However, there is little expertise for this clientele, which corresponds to a particular group, the one I see in downtown Montreal.