Thank you, Chair.
Thanks to all of you for your testimony today. I really appreciate it. I'm very grateful that we were able to hear from you.
Very quickly, on the committee here and as deputy shadow minister for veterans affairs, I talk to a lot of veterans specifically about this issue. In one example of many, a gentleman was bedridden for years. His wife would turn him over, feed him and give him his prescriptions: a thousand pills, pharmaceuticals, per month. Someone said to her, “Look, you have to at least try this.” She was getting the 10 grams before they changed it and would make a suppository, which is not for fun. She gave it to her husband.
The first time she gave it to him, she had an actual conversation with him within a half hour. She had not had one with him for years. Long story short, over time, he continued to improve. She wanted to take him off the pharmaceuticals he was on. She could not get the assistance of a psychologist or a doctor to do that. No one would help her with that step. She did it on her own, which was very frightening, as three of the prescriptions were stronger than opioids. Over time, he eventually walked into his doctor's office. His doctor's jaw hit the floor and he said, “I need to call all of my colleagues together because we need to speak with you.” This is typical, I think, of a lot of things that have been going on without the proper background and research, and without the proper education of our physicians on how to cope with these circumstances.
There are two things that I would like your response on, maybe from Dr. Zacharias first, and then I would ask the others to please come in as well.
How important is this research and that it not be impacted by funding? You say there's no industry funding in the research. I'm concerned that it doesn't become just another method of making a lot of money for pharmaceutical companies, rather than making sure that it's actually serving the way it's supposed to serve and having in place all of those checks and balances that you speak of.