DRUG COURT AN ALTERNATIVE TO JAIL?

Social Worker Says Treat Addictions As Health Problems, Not
Crimes

An Edmonton social worker agrees with a national drug policy expert
that the spread of killer diseases by drug users would be curbed by
treating drug use as a health issue instead of a crime.

City social worker Neil Cameron, director of Community Addictions
Services and Education, said an effective program must address the
financial, family and other situations that cause an addict to use
drugs - and ultimately to spread disease through dirty needles.

"When frustration hits, when depression hits, they go back to the
thing that works - the drugs," Cameron said.

"With the treatment centres we have, people get the treatment and go
right back into the community without integration skills, still with
problems with the family."

Eugene Oscapella of the Canadian Centre for Drug Policy told a
national conference on hepatitis C Friday that by treating drugs as a
criminal rather than a social problem, Canada has promoted dangerous
behaviour.

There are about 10,000 needle drug users in Edmonton. It's a major
public health problem because needle drug users run a high risk of
getting blood-borne diseases like AIDS and hepatitis C.

Maggie McGinn is the executive director of Living Positive, a support
group for people with HIV.

She agrees the old approach to needle drug use isn't working. "I think
(the government) really needs to look into how they can prevent the
spread of HIV and hepatitis C through needle use," she said.

"That's one of the increasing groups (diagnosed with HIV), intravenous
drug users. It is because people have to do it in secret because it is
against the law."

Cameron and others are proposing a drug court for Edmonton that would
give addicts who commit non-violent crimes to support their addiction
the chance to avoid jail time by accepting treatment.

"The rate of (reoffending) is going to go way down, the rate of
disease back to the community is going to go way down - the statistics
out of the States proved it," Cameron said.

"I think what (the law) needs to recognize is unless you're treating
the root causes of the addictions and persons addicted, they're going
to return to the community and engage in behaviours that endanger
themselves and others."

He said the drug court proposal will go to the federal and provincial
governments later this month.