Health committee  Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody.

Health committee  That's okay. I'm fairly flexible with the title, although I did work hard to get it. Good afternoon, and thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to speak with you today. As you heard, I am Dr. Eileen de Villa, and I am the medical officer of heal

Health committee  As I indicated in my remarks, the idea is to borrow from that we know from other products already out there. There's quite a bit of research with respect to how packaging impacts the uptake in use, by youth in particular. We do know, and I do believe there is good reason to belie

Health committee  It it sounds like that list has most of the elements covered. I'd have to reflect on it a little more, but the notion is to follow the evidence that has been used and been shown to be impactful with respect to plain packaging as it applies to tobacco. I think we have some experie

Health committee  To be frank, it's been quite some time since I practised that type of medicine, so I don't know that I have a particular comment to add on that topic. I would suggest to you, however, that even amongst non-pregnant individuals, as I mentioned earlier, there is fairly limited rese

Health committee  And there's much that we do know, right?

Health committee  We do have information, but I agree that there are areas that require further undertaking and study.

Health committee  I would like to think so. As I mentioned in my remarks, injury and motor vehicle accidents related to that are the main contributor to the burden of illness associated with cannabis right now in this country. Might those education campaigns help? Yes, I think that's part of it.

Health committee  I don't know that it's the least preferred way with regard to that specific goal, but I agree with my colleague, Benedikt Fischer, that this is not an ideal or optimal provision within the context of the legislation. It's rife with difficulties, for sure, on a series of levels. W

Health committee  Yes, it is. As I mentioned, we're talking about long-term consequences associated with personal possession. Dr. Maté, before his unfortunate sound issues, was talking about many of the social problems and the social factors that drive lots of these things. I think, in fact, cre

Health committee  I think that certainly exists, but there is some question as to how legislation is implemented in reality. There's what's on paper, and then there's what happens in practice. I would agree with you that there is still some potential for that, but as I understand it, this is an in

Health committee  In my comments I talked about how I think this is a reasonable approach for now, and that we should continue to move forward and think about and ensure that we're capitalizing on the experiences of other jurisdictions. It's a question of trying to balance it out, so I agree that

Health committee  Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to speak with you today. As you've heard, my name is Dr. Eileen de Villa and I am the Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto. In that capacity I and my organization, Toronto Public

Health committee  I can start off with that a little bit. We certainly have a number of programs directed toward young people and for parents and caregivers of young people. We have a number of programs in schools that are not necessarily specific to any one substance or drug but talk about substa

Health committee  This is in respect of the number of treatment admissions for methamphetamine, and I will tell you the exact source for that. That is from our drug and alcohol treatment information system, courtesy of our colleagues at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, right here in Tor