DRUG COURT HELPS ADDICTS KICK HABIT AND GET A LIFE

EDMONTON - David loved crack cocaine.

For six years, the drug was his escape from reality.

But the 37-year-old carpenter is ready to come clean and says it has
been more than four months since he picked up a pipe. "And I don't
miss it."

It was a separation from his wife that made him turn to the expensive
habit, he says. When she took the children, he turned first to pot,
his drug of choice since age 12. But it just didn't help the way it
used to, so he quit for a year. Eventually, the pain of being apart
from his children caught up with him and he turned to crystal meth,
then found something he thought was even better.

"Crack gave me that fast and furious boom," he says.

David kept using the drug until he was picked up for possession and
given a choice -- jail or treatment.

David went to Edmonton's Drug Treatment Court and pleaded guilty and
chose treatment.

The court is an experiment, modelled after similar ones in Toronto and
Vancouver. It emphasizes recovery for non-violent addicts.

Participants are assigned to Edmonton agencies, such as AADAC and
Poundmakers Lodge, and ordered to appear before the court weekly as
their progress is monitored.

- - ith the help of various agencies, the court arranges access to
employment and affordable housing. The addicts must be adults who have
committed crimes to support their addictions. Only "bottom-level
traffickers" need apply, says JoAnn McCartney, who spearheaded the
pilot program which gave the first 13 addicts to appear before the
court an option to avoid prison.

"Some people might say this is a get-out-of-jail-free card," says
McCartney. "It's not."

Addicts do more work with the program than they will ever do in jail,
says executive director Jim Myklebust.

Last year, the federal health and justice departments doled out $13.3
million to establish drug courts in Edmonton, Ottawa, Regina and
Winnipeg. The Edmonton court also supported by provincial funds and
private donations.

David won't give his last name to protect his children; he said he
entered the program for their sake. "I didn't want to miss any more of
my children's life."

bgelinas@thejournal.canwest.com

PILOT PROJECT

Thirteen addicts began treatment in the pilot project in
June.

- - All were aged 18 to 35

- - One began using drugs or alcohol at the age of nine

- - 11 listed crack cocaine as their drug of choice

- - Three had no work history

- - Two had extensive employment records

- - Three were high school grads with some post-secondary
education

- - Six had children

- - Seven had no stable housing

- - Three successfully completed the program

Source: Evaluation of the Experimental Edmonton Drug Treatment Court Pilot,
McCready Consultants Ltd., August 2005