I'm so glad you asked that question.
There are a couple of really key things. I really believe we need a public health awareness campaign around moderate use of alcohol and cannabis in particular.
Since the pandemic, we have seen, particularly with men, a 39% rise in risky cannabis use and 28% rise in problematic risky alcohol use. With women it's 18% and 35% respectively. This is from the Canadian Centre for Substance Use and Addiction and the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
We're seeing people use more. Of course as they use more over a longer period of time, it becomes harder to treat, so we need early education and intervention. We absolutely need programs that are easy to access. We need the federal government to fund more detox and more crisis services so we can get people into care.
I agree with you that for some folks we need long-term care and long residential programs. We also need to focus in on withdrawal management and ongoing integrated services.
Thank you.