I think that, when we look at OAT, which is opioid agonist therapy—another term for it is medication for opioid use disorder—we have guidelines based on massive studies. Guidelines suggest first line A is buprenorphine or naloxone and first line B, the gold standard, is methadone. These are not accessible to many Canadians around the country, which is very unfortunate. Access is everything. Getting access to these medications is key. Again, it's very important that this comes with wraparound services.
A molecule isn't about treatment. It's about stabilization. It's about initiating treatment. That's a very big differentiating feature. When we look at treatment of opioid use disorder, we talk about the use of buprenorphine, methadone, slow-release oral morphine or whatever molecule we have. It's about stabilizing that individual so we can work through some of the reasons they're suffering with addiction. That may include mental illness or trauma. There are a variety of reasons. It may include chronic pain.
I am lucky to work with Maria on a lot of things as the co-chair for the Alberta pain strategy. One thing is that our virtual pain program works directly with our virtual opioid program to deal with these issues.
Again, this is about medicalizing addiction as a health disorder, not about activism and other aspects. The reality is that following the evidence is something that doesn't seem to be the focus here.