Evidence of meeting #26 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was addiction.
A video is available from Parliament.
9:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, Assembly of First Nations
We need more education on harm reduction.
I want to recognize Minister Philpott's championing of harm reduction in international conversations. We need to apply that at home. We need much more investment in educational resources to support harm reduction.
9:45 a.m.
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, As an Individual
One example of big pharma was the temporary approval thing. When I saw this brought up, I remember actually resigning from the committee that recommended it. It was a joke, all our patients put in boiling water.... That was the end of the temp approve....
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Okay. That ends our seven-minute rounds. We're going to five-minute rounds.
We're going to start with Mr. Webber.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Len Webber Conservative Calgary Confederation, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My first question is for Dr. Nady el-Guebaly.
Doctor, you mentioned in your presentation the experimenters, the one-timers, the young kids who go to rave parties and maybe experiment with ecstasy or marijuana. In a number of cases, there's fentanyl laced in these things, which causes them to either die or end up in emergency. I've been doing a bit of reading with respect to the testing of these drugs and the access to tests that these kids or these individuals who are taking these drugs might have. They could then test to see whether there's fentanyl in the particular drug or if it's laced in a marijuana bag.
Are you familiar with these test strips at all, Doctor, in regard to the way they work or if they even do work?
9:45 a.m.
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, As an Individual
I guess I have some difficulty.... First of all, I want to differentiate the statuses that we're seeing right now from addiction. Not all the kids who are dying today are addicted. Sometimes it's their first, second, or third time. They were looking for something else that turned out to be laced with whatever. That goes on.
Now, with regard to the strips, I am unaware that somebody who starts doing a test strip.... Suddenly the kid is going to—I don't know why I say “kid”, because all kinds of people take it—take the product that's been given and test it? I'm not that encouraged by that kind of thing.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Len Webber Conservative Calgary Confederation, AB
I'm just concerned because the Liberal government is looking at legalizing marijuana in the future, and of course it will be in abundance in society. With the problems now with fentanyl-laced marijuana, we're going to be seeing a lot more of this. I think we need to look at ways of testing these drugs before they get into—
9:50 a.m.
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, As an Individual
By the way, Mr. Webber, as you know, I was at an international conference in Montreal last week. So was Dr. Chase. I think the wisdom at the moment is that our recommendation for physicians is to go through a phase of decriminalization, which is urgently needed, the next step being legalization. We are worried, as physicians, to move from criminalization to legalization without going through the step of decriminalization.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Len Webber Conservative Calgary Confederation, AB
Thank you.
I'd like to talk to our first nations representatives here today with respect to education. That's a bit of my background for politics.
With respect to how you are educating your young or your community, what do you do to reach your populations to educate them and to warn them of the risks involved?
Are there settings in your classrooms? Or do you constantly scare them with the fact that this is dangerous and they should not be experimenting? Could you speak a bit about the education of your first nations children?
9:50 a.m.
Executive Director, Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, Assembly of First Nations
We've developed an early intervention program. It's called “Buffalo Riders”. It educates primarily grades 7 and 8 children at risk of substance use, but it's also in every community. We've implemented this program in a number of first nations communities. They have found the curriculum to be so beneficial that they have used it not just with kids at risk, but to educate grades 7, 8, and even 9, and their parents, about the risks related to substance use issues. It's a program that has met every provincial and territorial standard for the health curriculum, so schools in communities have implemented this program.
Again, one of the issues is that there are not enough resources to expand it. The Thunderbird Partnership Foundation has a mandate to serve all of Canada, and I have eight staff. We are developing a train-the-trainer model to expand the capacity to deliver this early intervention program. It's had good results in terms of reducing substance use. It's been used as an alternative justice measure as well, so it's had good success.
9:50 a.m.
Ontario Regional Chief, Assembly of First Nations
I'll take a different approach and look at this issue of legalization of marijuana and recreational use.
There is a very important process that's under way in Canada right now. It's the examining of the regulatory landscape on marijuana use. I think it will be critical that first nations are directly involved and participating in that, because the situation as it unfolds in terms of access to marijuana in our communities is going to have a very interesting, complex, and sometimes insidious impact.
My point is that we all need to be involved. There's a shared solution approach that's needed. If we get in on the ground floor with something like the regulatory landscape on the recreational use of marijuana and the decriminalization of marijuana, then certainly our first nations communities will have to be involved in the very wide education of these issues.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Listening to your remarks and reading about the opioid crisis, especially in Sioux Lookout, makes me dizzy. I am not making a pun. We are talking about naloxone as a quick treatment to save a life in an emergency. This is nonetheless a short-term solution.
The situation in Sioux Lookout is nothing new. It has not been going on for a week, two weeks, a month or since we noticed the crisis. Studies show that it dates back to 2013 and perhaps even earlier.
I am interested to know the causes of this crisis. We must of course have a short-term plan to save lives immediately. We also need a long-term plan to change the situation so that we do not see the same problems in two years or five years from now.
I would like to hear your views on this. What is your plan for the medium and long term? What do you expect from the government? What has been done already that did not work and what in your opinion might work? In short, we have to consult you and we have to change things. There is no point doing the same things that may not have worked. I would like your comments on that.
I know that five minutes for questions is very little time to discuss it, but we have to look at this.
Thank you.
Ms. Hopkins, I think you wanted to say something.
9:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, Assembly of First Nations
One of the things I'd like to contribute to the answers among the panel is that this framework talks about the paradigm shifts that are necessary to implement this—so it's systems change—and one of them is in the background colour of this model. The colour is what they call “P.E.I. red”. It's a colour to represent culture. One of the significant changes we need to make is to shift from an evidence-based absence of indigenous knowledge and cultural practices to the inclusion of indigenous knowledge and cultural practices.
That has not been consistently part of our answer in addressing any issues in first nations communities because it's not recognized as credible evidence, but we do have evidence now that says culture makes a difference. In fact, in the centre of this framework, we talk about four outcome measures—hope, belonging, meaning, and purpose—and there are 13 measurable indicators. We have the instrument to measure that and to demonstrate the impact that culture makes, but again, we need capacity to be able to help communities use instruments to collect data and to demonstrate change that they make both for individuals and for overall community wellness. It's about shifting from evidence-absent to evidence-inclusive.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
9:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, Assembly of First Nations
Yes.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
Have you had the opportunity to put it into practice and have you had good results?
9:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, Assembly of First Nations
Yes.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
9:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, Assembly of First Nations
I was the director of a youth treatment centre for 13 years. In that time, we had 100% of the youth completing the program. Nationally, in any program, mainstream or first nations, the outcome is 50%. Not only did they complete their course of treatment, they also returned to school at a increase of 40%: 40% coming into treatment and 40% more returning to school post-treatment. Eighty-six per cent of youth discontinued sniffing gas and solvent abuse post-treatment, and the reason they did was the access to culture. Their common statement to us was, why did my life have to end up in such turmoil before I had access to culture? That's just a little insight.
With the native wellness assessment, we're seeing an increase of at least 30% from a whole-person perspective, meaning a 30% increase in having hope in their lives, knowing where they belong, having a sense of meaning, and having a sense of purpose in their lives through the use of cultural practices.
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Your time is up.
I need unanimous consent to continue. The bells are ringing.
How much time do we have, do you know?
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
October 25th, 2016 / 9:55 a.m.
Conservative
9:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Okay. We'll continue.
Mr. Ritz, welcome to our committee. You're up for five minutes.
