I'm not entirely sure what the exact question is, but I reinforce all of your comments. I agree with all of them.
We absolutely need to direct resources to indicated interventions for young people who have started to experiment with substances. We need to reduce their use of substances and absolutely prioritize interventions that are going to help them not transition to more regular and harmful use of very high-risk substances. We need upstream solutions as well, and we need solutions that will provide people living with substance use disorders and substance dependence with mental health services. They get caught in this revolving door.
I think the committee needs to realize that it's difficult enough to assess someone with a mental health problem. It's also very difficult to assist someone with a substance use disorder, and when you put those two things together it becomes a very complicated mix of symptoms that mutually influence each other. There's this notion called "telescoping". It causes difficulties to rapidly accelerate, and it makes it very difficult to intervene.That is why we advocate for much earlier intervention around the concurrent substance use and mental health problems. What research has shown from large cohort studies is that there are risk factors that will predict who is likely to experience co-occurring mental health and substance use problems. We've even identified some of the common underlying factors that will lead to these problems, and that is where the interventions are targeted.