OTTAWA PLANS SPECIAL DRUG COURTS, MCLELLAN SAYS

Canadian Press

Vancouver - The federal government plans to set up drug courts in all
major Canadian cities by 2004, Justice Minister Anne McLellan said in
an interview Thursday.

Ms. McLellan committed her government to expanding a two-year-old
pilot project in Toronto that sends non-violent drug offenders into
mandatory treatment instead of to jail. "They've got to have a will to
turn their lives around," she said in one of the first major policy
announcements of the Liberals' third mandate. "But it's a much more
constructive approach and has much higher long-term success rates than
the straight criminal justice system where there's very little
attention paid to the addiction and treatment of it."

Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen, who released a drug-policy discussion
paper last month that called for drug courts, applauded Ms. McLellan's
comments. "Drug courts are in almost every U.S. state and they've been
very successful," he said. "This is a wonderful announcement."

B.C. Attorney-General Graeme Bowbrick, who visited Toronto's drug
court recently, was also encouraged by McLellan's announcement. But he
cautioned that such courts would have to be accompanied by more
federal money for drug treatment so that those forced into care do not
make it more difficult for people to get treatment
voluntarily.

The Liberals' election platform - known as Red Book 3 - promised to
more than double Ottawa's crime-prevention budget by $145 million
during the next four years. During the same period, the Liberals also
committed $420 million to a national drug strategy to tackle substance
abuse.

That strategy would include enhanced drug prevention, improved
treatment and new approaches to enforcement including drug-treatment
courts, the platform stated.

But Ms. McLellan's statement Thursday that the government wants to set
up drug courts in all major cities over the next three years is a much
firmer commitment than the government has made in the past.

The Toronto drug court has a dedicated team made up of an assigned
judge, federal Crown prosecutor and defence counsel assisted by social
agencies, treatment experts and employment counsellors. Addicts who
choose treatment over jail must submit to weekly urine tests and
attend therapy sessions.

In Toronto, the drug court only handles offenders charged with federal
drug offences. Mr. Bowbrick said he would like a Vancouver court to
also include offenders charged with property crimes committed to feed
drug habits.

Specialized drug courts were originally established in 1989 in Florida
by now-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. These courts proved so
effective in combating repeat offences that there now are several
hundred operating across the United States, directing addicts into
treatment, retraining and a new life.