Health Committee on Sept. 13th, 2017

[Marc Paris]

The goal of the campaign was exactly to get this brochure into the hands of as many parents as possible. The call to action in our message was to download the brochure or get it for free. Parents can go the homepage of our website. They can either download it or get it for free.

As I said, to date we've distributed 100,000. They were either downloaded or sent out and distributed. We sent out 36,000 samples to schools and medical clinics during the course of the summer. We're now seeing orders coming in. School principals are ordering 300, 450 copies of this for all their parents. I suspect that the 100,000 will grow very quickly. That's a good thing, but it needs to be supported by mass media.

We have experience doing these campaigns. This is our 12th national multimedia campaign. The secret to it is to keep doing it. Our campaigns are continuous, 12 months of the year. We have 60-plus media partners—television, radio, print, every form of out-of-home media you can imagine. It's ongoing. We replace one campaign with another. But education messages can't be just a six-week spurt and then off you go. The problem is that we get the messages for free, but if the government has to do it—Health Canada, for example, has done education messaging—they have to pay for it, and it's extremely expensive. National multimedia campaigns could cost tens of millions of dollars a year, easily.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

So your campaign, this campaign, was about this document.

[Marc Paris]

Correct.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Further campaigns would probably expand into other things, would they?

[Marc Paris]

We would continue. Our plan is to recycle that campaign in September of next year, and to run it right up until mid-January of 2019. Our next campaign, starting in October, will go back to the misuse of prescription drugs and the need for parents to secure their meds and bring back all leftovers to the pharmacy. Last year alone, with the help of Shoppers Drug Mart, we recuperated 243 tonnes of unused and expired medicine. This year we're expanding that with probably 4,000 retail drop-off points. Most of the major national chains are coming on board with the campaign this year.

That campaign will run until mid-January. Then we go back to a campaign on drug-impaired driving, called “The call that comes after”, which just won an international award for best creative.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Apart from promoting access to this, which is a good thing, what other kinds of ads or promotions to dissuade youth from marijuana would you envision would be effective?

[Marc Paris]

Some campaigns need to be aimed directly at the kids. These campaigns that we do are directed at the parents. You need different types of approaches with kids. You won't use the same media mix as you would with the parents. They don't consume the same media. I would see national campaigns, both in-school and multimedia, but different types of media mix aimed at youth, and continuing to....

You see, there's a direct equation between a sense of risk and a trial. The higher the sense of risk, the lower the trial. It's not about scaring kids, but if they sense that it's a risky proposition, they'll think twice about going down that path of risky behaviour.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

So you don't see ads of the nature of “this is your brain on marijuana” kind of thing.

[Marc Paris]

It could be, but I think it would be a different approach. I think we now know about this. The science has been proven. Kids are starting to get it. They're starting to understand that there is some risk to their personal health and the development of their brain.

It's the same thing with drug-impaired driving. We have to change the dialogue here. Kids understand, after 20 years of Mothers Against Drunk Driving doing campaigns, about alcohol, but at this point kids don't see having a joint and driving as being risky as having alcohol and driving. We have to continue that as well.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Do I have more time, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

You have time for just a couple of real short questions.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

That will be tough.

Madam Chapados, you spoke about branding. We heard testimony that while promoting in terms of branding could be problematic, and I would agree, the identification of product in terms of branding would be useful so that people would recognize the product that they're familiar with, know what they're getting, and know what they're dealing with. Would you like to comment on that?

[Maude Chapados]

Yes, that touches on what your colleague and I were talking about earlier. Product recognition requires that the name and brand be indicated, and so forth, whereas stimulation seeks to make a product attractive. There is a difference between the two. That is not addressed in Bill C-45. Stimulating demand and creating new client groups must be avoided. That is why, from a public health perspective, neutral packaging is one of the options preferred in the literature, for both tobacco and cannabis.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Okay, thanks very much.

Now we're moving on to Mr. Webber.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Dr. Barakett, do you believe that marijuana is a gateway drug?

[Dr. William J. Barakett]

Oh yes, without any doubt. I cited that United Kingdom study. It puts into evidence what we've known for years, but finally somebody quantified it.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

And the reason for it, is it because the marijuana product is not doing what it used to do for these users?

[Dr. William J. Barakett]

I don't know if it's necessarily because it's more potent. It's simply because it hinders the person's cognitive development, which causes them to undertake risky behaviours because they lack judgment. Reasoning and judgment are the two principal cognitive impairments. That's why they go from using that to.... And if they have an underlying disorder, if they are ADD, as a sizable proportion of teenage cannabis abusers are, and they're not treated, then they need to calm themselves. Once you treat the ADD with the appropriate long-acting stimulant medication that helps them to learn, concentrate, and feel good about themselves, they stop using.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Right.

You have opioid patients who you are now prescribing marijuana to because of the CBD in it.

[Dr. William J. Barakett]

Yes.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

For their chronic conditions, it's successful, apparently. That's what you're saying.

Patients who have post-traumatic stress disorder, they're also, I hear, moving into marijuana medication. Is it for the CBD or is it for the THC?

[Dr. William J. Barakett]

They're having to use THC because it has the more calming effect. The trouble is that the THC is strong, and what happens when you use CBD—which is anti-epileptic, by the way—is that it's also anti-neuropathic pain, but you need a combination of the two. What we're doing in our practice is mixing a proportion of one part THC to two, three, or four parts CBD, the amount that is required to neutralize the stoning effect of the THC, and it goes for pain conditions, it goes for chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. We're seeing good results.

The trouble is that it's sort of a bric-a-brac study where the patient is obliged to buy his own from one of the companies that produces cannabis under the aegis of Health Canada.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

That's interesting.

Again, I'm just a little bit confused here with respect to the difference between CBD and THC. The THC is more of a hallucinogenic type of drug.

[Dr. William J. Barakett]

Yes, it's psychoactive. Cannabidiol is non-psychoactive.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

So these patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, are they looking to hide their trauma through a hallucinogenic drug, rather than...?