Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the presenters for their useful information and views.
Professor Oscapella, I would like to ask you a question concerning your discussion on the drug situation. It's interesting that your presentation comes on the heels of an article in yesterday's Globe and Mail by Neil Reynolds, not a noted liberal, on issues of certain types. He talks about the war on drugs. He says it cannot be won and that it has in fact led to increases in crimes and violence throughout the world. He talked about the U.S. and Mexico in particular and the number of deaths approaching 40,000 in the last five years. He says that if the United States legalized drugs, the savings would be $44 billion in law enforcement and another $42 billion in tax revenues.
These are interesting numbers.
I understand that some countries have attempted to take a different approach towards drugs in order to reduce crime and harm to society. Would you care to comment on what has happened in Portugal, which I understand has undertaken a program of changes in its approach to the use of drugs and the criminalization of drugs, particularly marijuana?