There's something procedurally that I need to introduce to the committee and I'm going to use my question period, which allows me to ask specific questions of you and then at the end, I will move on to committee business. It should not take a long time, but I just wanted to keep you informed.
In full disclosure, I've been studying the use of cannabis in the Dravet community for probably over 10 years and have seen the anecdotal information. Some people describe it as Dravet syndrome, but it's largely, the doctors will know, a seizure issue often with children who experience uncontrollable seizures. That community across the country—I have been to one of their national conferences—is convinced that the CBD product hasn't prevented or cured the seizure situation, but in some cases, according to individuals I've visited, it has reduced their children's seizures from 45 a day down to three. They're organized both in the United States and Canada.
Also, I have a special needs, disabled son who has experimented with cannabis oil for anxiety issues and episodic aggression.
I definitely agree with all of you that there's so little scientific research on the subject matter. I thank all the doctors because I see the common thread in your comments. You've also heard each other today comment that this is, at best, a trial that's going on in all of society as to what the benefits are. Some people are trying to grasp it.
The other distinction that was made by your testimony today is that there's medical cannabis and there's recreational cannabis. Of course, the current government decided to move forward with recreational marijuana, without the evidence in front of them of what the effects would be. Many people, including the medical community, were not in agreement because it was a premature step to take in terms of legalizing it. Also, my riding has the largest first nation in Canada, Six Nations of the Grand River, and they are rampantly going into production. This past weekend I met an individual who thought he was buying a CBD product in a liquid form to reduce his pain. I asked him if he knew what he was taking. He said he had no idea what he was taking. There are no labels on the bottle. They're completely out of the jurisdiction of the Government of Canada because they consider themselves to be an independent nation.
We have all this going on and I'm describing it in the context here. There's one issue that industry seems to be pushing right now and I want your thoughts and honest views on it. There's medical, which is not really prescribed, but it's recommended and that's been talked about as medical cannabis. The taxation regime for that is the same as for recreational. The government taxes it three times and they pile on a final tax called an excise tax, which no other medication in this country experiences, if it's called medical. I've gone to a lot of the production facilities and a lot of them are legitimately producing medical product, but the recreational side is so attractive financially that most of them are going both routes. It's based on shareholder value in the company, so it's profit that they're after.
That said, there are some companies that are doing their due diligence on the medical side. Should medical marijuana be taxed the same as recreational marijuana, with the additional excise tax or what a lot of people call the sin tax? Should veterans be paying an additional excise tax on what is quoted as being medical cannabis?