I can only speak to my practice, which includes the physicians who serve the Sioux Lookout zone. Our practice of prescribing is very cautious. When we do prescribe opioids, it's often because there is very little funding for physiotherapy and occupational therapy. People get injured at work and we have no access to those services. The basic service that would prevent acute pain from becoming chronic doesn't happen.
We do have some challenges, but increasingly, in Thunder Bay and Winnipeg, specialists are no longer sending home orthopedic patients with 200 Percocets for a procedure where it might be required that they take them for a week. We are very cautious in our prescribing practices. I appreciate your bringing that up. I absolutely own that it was physicians who started this. Our prescribing practices in Ontario started this, but often it's because we don't have other services. Getting physio, OT, massage therapy, and chiropractors into these communities would decrease the need for many of my arthritic patients, whom I'm obligated to provide—