Thank you.
I'll go back to you, Dr. Wieman. I really appreciate your talking about the comparables with COVID. I mean, the federal government spent less than 1% responding to the toxic drug crisis as compared with COVID. We've now lost more people to the toxic drug crisis than COVID, I believe.
We've seen increased death rates in neighbouring provinces and states. In Alberta they had a record number of deaths last year. Alaska, a neighbouring state, had a 45% increase in deaths and now has a higher death rate than British Columbia. Baltimore has a death rate five times that of British Columbia. All are places without harm reduction, with pretty much no safe supply and no decriminalization.
Maybe you could speak to your earlier comment about the impact that the politicization of this crisis is having. I was in Portugal last year, and they talked about the fact that it was experts who led their response, not politicians. The politicians got out of the way.
Can you talk about the role politicians should be playing and experts and how we can move forward with less politicization?