Mr. Chairman, I am sorry but it was a very cordial dialogue. We will do our best to make sure it stays that way.
I would be more than happy to table the report either to the Chair or to the hon. member tomorrow. It is certainly not anything I keep secret. Nor is it something I developed. It is there and the figures are real.
The real issue the hon. member wanted to talk about was drug safety and the reason drug costs are going up. Not only is the cost of drugs going up. We are using more drugs. That is fine. Canadians are big users of drugs and will continue to be.
However we must look in perspective at the downfalls of this. As we use more drugs we are also misusing many drugs. This is causing tremendous concern. Statistics coming into my office suggest 30% of seniors are addicted to benzodiazepines, a very addictive line of drugs. That is 20% of the general population. The addiction is often worse than the illness the drugs were prescribed for. They are not being used as intended by Health Canada. The rules say they should be taken for 7 to 10 days at a time. Some people have been on them for 7 to 10 years.
We have a major problem that needs to be addressed. Before we open the avenue for more drugs let us deal with the safety of the drugs we have.