LAWYERS LIKE DRUG COURT PLANS

Minister Wants Treatment Courts In Every City

Criminal trial lawyers in the city are excited federal Justice
Minister Anne McLellan wants to see drug courts in every major
Canadian city by 2004.

A drug court would allow drug addicts facing non-violent charges -
trafficking, property and prostitution offences - to avoid jail time
by agreeing to mandatory treatment and monitoring.

Toronto has had a drug treatment court for two years - a pilot
project funded through Justice Canada's Crime Prevention Investment
Fund. Vancouver will have a drug court by April.

"If the court arrived in Edmonton tomorrow it wouldn't be soon
enough," said Terry Glancy, president of the Criminal Trial Lawyers'
Association of Alberta.

"At the present time, if you put an addict in jail for 18 months to
two years, what comes out on release is still an addict."

For those who may argue offenders are getting off easy if they get
drug treatment instead of jail time, Glancy disagrees.

"As long as there is a treatment component, then one could argue they
are still being appropriately punished. Under the Criminal Code,
everything from probation to incarceration is within the range of
sentencing."

The John Howard Society's assistant executive director, Doug
Seitsinger, agreed with Glancy's comments.

"Addiction is a disease, so what you need to do is look at treatment
and not necessarily incarceration - or maybe a combination of the two.

I don't know if incarceration always has to be the punishment of
first resource," he said, noting some people come out of jail worse
than when they entered the facility.

In drug courts, participants must submit to weekly urine tests and
attend therapy sessions. Successful participants - those who end up
drug-free - receive a suspended sentence or a conditional discharge
but must continue therapy while they serve out their probation.

Those who fail to complete the program go back to the regular courts
for sentencing.

The United States opened the doors on its first drug court more than
10 years ago, and England and Australia are setting up test courts of
their own.

There has been one in Portland, Oregon, since 1991 - the third in the
U.S. where there are now over 600.

"We've gone from a punishment court to a therapeutic court," said
Judge Douglas Beckman, who's presided over the court for the past
year and a half.

"The idea is keeping people out of jail and off drugs and every
effort is made to force them, cajole them, influence them to stay in
treatment and stay clean."

After eight years on the bench, he said authorities will never stop
the flow of drugs. The only way to combat the problem is to decrease
demand.

"We've tried the alternative of jail and prison and it doesn't stop
drug use. It has almost no impact," Beckman said in a telephone
interview from Portland.