REHABILITATING ADDICTS

Ottawa -- I would like to extend my accolades to Ontario Court Judge Paul
Bentley for his work with rehabilitating drug-addicted criminals, and to The
Globe for printing this inspiring story (Drug Treatment Court Helps Addicts
Turn Their Lives Around -- Dec. 1).

I would hope that some of the hard-line law-and-order policy thugs in this
country might take notice of such heartwarming successes in legal policy.
Judge Bentley's program has recognized drug addiction as a serious illness,
rather than as strictly a legal issue requiring the imposition of jail
terms.

Most significantly, the program simultaneously acts to reduce taxpayer
expenditures on incarceration while actually rehabilitating drug addicts
into the community, rather than having them return to the streets no better
off than before incarceration.

Mark Alexander