A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Drug-Treatment Courts a Viable Alternative to Incarceration

The more than 500 law enforcement officials, lawyers, judges and
academics from all across North America gathered in Edmonton this
weekend just might be onto something.

The first conference of the Canadian Association of Drug Treatment
Courts underway in Edmonton is looking at a variety of issues, but
one of the more compelling ones has to do with coming up with a
better way to deal with drug addicts.

Conference-goers seem to agree, for the most part, that the notion of
locking them up until their debt to society -- at least time-wise --
is up and then sending them back onto the streets is not the answer.
Especially when they've refused treatment for whatever addiction got
them into that predicament in the first place.

That approach to dealing with those whose addictions lead to a
pattern of crime has proven to be ineffective at best and, at worst, tragic.

So there has to be a better way and the drug-treatment court idea
that is being bandied about at the Edmonton conference certainly
seems to offer a better alternative,

Through this initiative, which is already in effect in six Canadian
cities including Edmonton, addicts with long, non-violent criminal
history are given a second chance at kicking their drug habits and
staying out of prison.

Those involved in the program have to plead guilty and still have
that conviction on their record, but are put on a strict regimen of
treatment and supervision, which includes regular meetings with a judge.

It's a practice Judge Darlene Wong of Edmonton calls "therapeutic
jurisprudence" and for all those naysayers out there, she concedes
"it's not an easy step" for those involved.

Anyone with an addiction problem -- and the increasingly prevalent
use of crystal meth is only going to make it worse -- has to not only
want to kick their habit, but have the willpower to do so. And in
many cases, of course, that's easier said than done.

As Wong says, many of those people caught in the abyss of a drug
problem simply find it easier to serve their time as is than to
attempt to undergo in a drug-treatment program.

It can be a tough sell to them, but it shouldn' t be a tough sell to
any of those taking in the Edmonton conference.

And it probably won't be.

Any program that offers an opportunity to rescue some people from
their cycle of abuse and whatever problems that may cause society
down the road should be embraced wholeheartedly.

It's all about helping people help themselves, and who isn't for that?