Just send us the references. That would be great. Thank you.
Mr. Bernstein, I appreciated your comment about the young people. We agree. We do not want young people consuming cannabis. As you say, we know that it affects the developing brain and as well, Dr. Grant, I echo those sentiments. We need to restrict this because we know it's harmful.
I particularly appreciated the comment that if young people are smoking a lot, then the first question we have to ask is why. I practised medicine for 20 years and we do see changes in young people who smoke or consume cannabis. On more than one occasion, I've diagnosed schizophrenia where it was very clear that the onset of psychotic symptoms predated the use of cannabis. Young people were self-medicating with it because they didn't want to talk about their symptoms with anybody. They started hearing voices and felt better when they smoked cannabis.
That's not the whole story, but you're right. I think by a more open dialogue about these things.... We have to ask these people and not just young people, if anyone is consuming a lot of the substance, the first thing we have to ask is why. I think that's very important.
Dr. Grant, in your brief and in your statements here, you said you recommended aligning it with the legal age for alcohol. Knowing what you do about it and knowing what you know about adolescent behaviour and patterns, could you speculate about what would be the result if we put the minimum age at 21 or 25, as recommended by the Canadian Medical Association?