Health committee  It's similar to Mr. Oliver's question about what you would present to the provincial-federal governments on how you treat the disease of addiction. As physicians, we're evidence-based, so what we're saying is that we have to utilize resources or processes that help people. As a doctor of 30 years, I'm trained to help people.

Health committee  You'll die if you put me in charge. If you want your appendix out right now, I'm not the guy to do it. But if you want to get recovery, if you want to get your son, who's addicted to fentanyl, off and back to normal, then okay, I'm your guy. Where are all the addiction physicians?

Health committee  It wouldn't matter.

Health committee  It's action: action. You need to develop a comprehensive treatment program for the treatment of addiction. Just go on the Internet and google “Hazelden Betty Ford”. It's the gold standard of treatment. You know, when people ask me, “In 15 seconds, tell me how you'd solve this problem”, it's ridiculous.

Health committee  If I could add to that, I think one of the reasons I can't give you a specific recommendation is that it's so broken. Where do we start? As I said, you could go on the Hazelden Betty Ford website, present that to the federal government, and say this is what we had in the seventies, eighties, and nineties.

Health committee  It was “intoxication”. It's as Dr. Wood and I are saying. You wouldn't want me being a retinal surgeon right now, because I have no training for it.

Health committee  Thank you very much for having me here and for taking the time to be interested in this most important issue. I'm a physician and an addiction medicine specialist. I'm ASAM-certified as of 1988. I've been in the addiction world for over 30 years, in the assessment, intervention, and treatment of addiction.