WELCOME TO DRUG COURT

Pick your way along Vancouver's battered East Hastings Street, home to
thousands of drug abusers and addicts, and the case for a fresh judicial
approach to drugs becomes compelling. Such a change is now on the horizon,
in the shape of a special drug-treatment court that will open its doors in
April. It should be welcomed.

Paid for with new federal crime-prevention funds, the Vancouver court will
be just the second of its kind in Canada. Toronto set up such a program two
years ago, and in the view of its overseer, Ontario Court Judge Paul
Bentley, it has proved a resounding success.

Under the guidelines, addicts charged with non-violent criminal offences --
trafficking, theft, soliciting for prostitution -- avoid jail by agreeing to
treatment and monitoring, through regular urine-analysis and counselling.
Those who complete the program drug-free receive a suspended sentence or a
conditional discharge. Those who fail return to the regular court system for
sentencing.

Britain and Australia have similar courts in place. So does the United
States, which, despite its well-deserved reputation for harshness in dealing
with drugs, has also proved a leader in tackling crime that stems from the
miseries of addiction. More than 600 such drug courts have been created in
the U.S., with close to 350,000 participants.

Measuring the long-term success rate of such programs is difficult, since
drug addiction, like alcoholism, is a disease that must be battled for a
lifetime. But the short-term benefits of treating drug addiction as a
medical rather than a criminal issue appear striking. The heroin or cocaine
addict who successfully completes treatment is spared a prison record, a
major obstacle in the struggle for a normal life. Society comes out ahead,
too, at least financially.

For every dollar spent administering the U.S. drug courts, New York City
Judge Robert Russell told an Ottawa convention last fall, an estimated $10
is saved further down the line in prosecution and incarceration costs. In
Britain, a 1999 survey found that the crime rate among graduates of
drug-treatment programs fell to half of what it had been.

British Columbia has always had more than its share of junkies. Across the
province, 242 individuals succumbed to fatal overdoses last year. But the
impact of drugs on crime is felt across Canada. Among the country's prison
population, by government estimates, drugs and alcohol were a factor at
least two-thirds of the time. Once those inmates are behind prison walls,
which are notoriously porous to the flow of drugs, their chances of
rehabilitation dwindle fast.

"Traditional responses such as courts and jails can become revolving doors
for persistent [drug] offenders," Justice Minister Anne McLellan observed,
correctly, at the launch of the Toronto pilot program. "We need to provide
an alternative." The drug courts look to be the right way to go.