Dan Werb is on a mission to change how we think about drug addiction

Dan Werb wants to revolutionize Canada's drug policy. And for him, that starts by ending the stigma and treating drug addicts with dignity.

You stigmatize something, you create a monstrous version of whatever that is.- Dr. Dan Werb

An epidemiologist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and an award-winning journalist, Werb hopes his research will revolutionize Canada's drug policy. "If we understand why people use drugs, then we can help them manage their own drug use or help them stop doing that."

And for Werb, science starts with stories — stories of how those suffering from addiction were first exposed to injection drugs in the first place, and stories about how they pass that along to others.

Watch Werb's own story in CBC's new series We Are Canada, which profiles of a new generation of passionate change-makers, Sundays at 7 p.m. on CBC and online.