Health committee  You're absolutely right, sir, in that we do not avoid addressing a problem because it will shift the problem. We have to utilize systems thinking in a strategic approach to this. We just need to look at the drug usage across Canada right now. One of the great concerns that we hav

Health committee  There's definitely an opportunity here to impact the organized crime element related to cannabis. As we mentioned, it's a $9-billion industry. If the cannabis act is successful and if it does result in a decrease of profit in the black market for organized crime, what we need to

Health committee  That is something that is a policing profession—

Health committee  We did hear the announcement. We acknowledge that the financial announcement is going to assist with our efforts. It will be, as I stated, incumbent on us to make sure that we are thinking one step ahead of organized crime. If we do reduce this market for them, where do they turn

Health committee  It's interesting when we talk about pre-prohibition, because we do talk about statistics and evidence, and I don't know what evidence or statistics we have for the pre-prohibition of alcohol. It would be very interesting to learn what the crime rates were back them. What we do

Health committee  That's a great point, sir. Currently, in legal businesses like a plumbing shop, we may not already have 300 criminal organizations established in an illicit industry, which is what we have today. We also have organized crime groups that have embedded themselves in a medical mari

Health committee  If I may add to the Deputy Commissioner's comments, one of the impacts we want to keep in mind in terms of rushing legislation and police not being prepared through adequate training is this: if we don't have the proper knowledge and the proper training, that can lead to poor dec

Health committee  This legislation will not eliminate organized crime, but there is an opportunity to mitigate the impact organized crime has on our communities. That opportunity will be found in improved regulations, and security clearances that are not limited to just the principals of the compa

Health committee  To add to my colleague's comments, I think it is very important to distinguish between legalization and decriminalization and the importance that will be found in the regulations. We do look forward to working with the government to ensure that there are robust regulations. Those