CRACK DEALER: 'NO' TO HOUSE ARREST

The last thing a city suffering from a physician shortage needs is
for doctors to spend valuable time monitoring urine samples of
convicted dealers to ensure they aren't getting high while serving a
conditional sentence.

Yet that is what lawyer Frank Miller is suggesting the court consider
so that his 37-year-old client, a drug addict, can serve house arrest
rather than prison time after convictions for trafficking crack
cocaine, resisting arrest and dangerous driving.

Miller is a pit bull when it comes to aggressively representing his
clients' interests and he can't be faulted for coming up with novel
proposals to spare them incarceration. But the judgment of the court
could certainly be questioned if it goes out of its way to give a
conditional sentence to a trafficker who doesn't deserve it.

Crack cocaine is a dangerous and addictive drug that is often
associated with other crimes including break and enters, auto-thefts
and robberies. Police allege it was a crack cocaine deal in a store
parking lot that preceded the shooting death last month of Windsor
police officer John Atkinson.

Federal prosecutor Richard Pollock argued the offender's drug
rehabilitation was a concern but not as pressing as the need to
protect the community, denounce drug trafficking and deter others
from similar crimes. Pollock asked the court to reject house arrest
in favour of a stint in jail and we couldn't agree more.