I think it's been said: Don't let what you don't know today keep you from doing what you do know today. We do know that there's a safe and effective way of prescribing these products. While we might not have every issue identified, we know there's a way of prescribing it and monitoring people well to be able to identify early those who are going to have problems.
This is where the guidelines, I think, will be helpful. As I said, with opioids, Canada did not create its first guidelines until 15 years after OxyContin was released. I hope that's not going to be the case with cannabis. One of the recommendations I would really like to see this committee adopt is encouraging the CIHR to fund the creation of the guidelines.
In the interim, it's a safe product in the right hands for the right patient, so if you can educate people to know their products well, which ones work, but more importantly, when you are starting to see signs of complications.... I've seen that in veterans who I've had in clinics. Early on you will identify that they're taking the wrong combination or they're taking too much of one product and not the other.
As I said, I've been prescribing it for 10 years. I believe it's safe as long as you screen people and, more importantly, monitor them. You can't prescribe this product and then see them in a year. You and I would never agree to an endocrinologist seeing a diabetic patient, prescribing insulin and then saying, “I'll see you in a year.” That would not be good medicine.
I'm seeing that the way we're prescribing—and most of the veterans tell me this—is that they get their appointment and the next appointment is scheduled for a year later.