Veterans Affairs committee  I have a quick comment on that. Smoking, as mentioned earlier, carries considerably more harm. We have all the lessons we've learned from tobacco to bring us up to where we are now. Some people actually mix tobacco with their cannabis when they smoke it. There are many, many ye

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. With licensed products, there are a range of preparations, including gels, and there has been a concerted push to come up with other non-smoked preparations. It's not only smoked products; there are infusibles, oils, gels and so on. That allows for better circumscribed dos

Veterans Affairs committee  Correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think my colleague Dr. Hurd raised the point about the urgency. We need to see this as a very urgent issue and mobilize as much research as we can, making it a priority area, which Health Canada has done to some degree and CIHR has done to some degree. I think it's an issue of

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, by that I'm referring to actually pooling the experience and the resources within centres, from Montreal to Toronto to all over the country. There's a lot of strength in numbers, and if there's a way of actually bringing together evidence, data, in a secure way and having th

Veterans Affairs committee  —CIMVHR.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, one of the bodies is the CIMVHR, which is the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research, based at Queen's University. That has network links with other veteran research organizations around the world in Australia, the U.K. and the U.S.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's not too limited; however, as I said earlier in evidence, there are some unique skills in working with veterans. Not all clinicians are comfortable with veterans' experiences. Not all have a sufficiently good appreciation of what happens in the theatre of combat and the conse

Veterans Affairs committee  I think one of the challenges for the medical profession also is when we refer to grams, as my colleague Dr. Hurd mentioned earlier, it's predominantly referring to smoked plant product. Within that weight can be a whole range of differences, mentioned earlier. One of our studie

Veterans Affairs committee  Some is being funded within the university and for other research that's been funded, one is through a bequest from a family who lost someone. There are opportunities through CIHR and so on, which are competitive bids.

Veterans Affairs committee  The exciting bit is that research into cannabinoids and cannabinoid medicine is rapidly growing and the momentum is building. There is also significantly more collaboration between researchers and centres around the world. Canada has a bit of a legislative advantage compared to s

Veterans Affairs committee  The use of cannabis and cannabis products as an alternative to the use of opioids and opiates carries its own risk. A lot of people do use the cannabis products for symptom relief, and with some symptoms, they may get relief from similar symptoms as they do with the use of opioid

Veterans Affairs committee  I would concur with Dr. [Inaudible—Editor].

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. Good afternoon, honourable members of Parliament. Thank you for the invitation to address this committee on the important topic of medical cannabis and veterans' well-being. At Queen's University, Kingston, I'm an associate professor of psychiatry and medical directo