ADDICTION FIX CAN ONLY BE LONG-TERM

Giving addicts a choice between jail or long-term addiction treatment
could help clean up the Downtown Eastside drug problem, B.C.'s health
minister says.

George Abbott was responding Friday to my proposal in a column this
week that addicts who collect welfare and steal to support their
habits should be forced into long-term rehabilitation.

Abbott cites the Charter as an obstacle to forced treatment, but says
that the idea of setting up a system in which addicts convicted of
crimes choose between incarceration or long-term rehab is "reasonable."

"I hope for many people that once they realize the harm that the
addiction is doing to their lives . . . many people [would] embrace
the treatment option rather than the incarceration option," Abbott says.

How a cash-strapped government now focused on warehousing addicts in
Vancouver's ghetto would actually pay for facilities to treat
thousands of the addicted is a big question.

But Abbott acknowledges that putting the typical Downtown Eastside
drug addict in long-term drug treatment would be cheaper than leaving
that person to collect welfare, steal, and visit emergency rooms.

High-level discussions have taken place about expanding the
long-term-care model used at the province's 100-bed Burnaby Centre
for Mental Health and Addictions, but more evaluation must be done on
the outcomes there, Abbott says.

Possible expansion sites could include Riverview Hospital in
Coquitlam, Abbott says.

Judges' options for diverting addicts into drug treatment include
conditional sentences that substitute rehab for jail, and probation
orders that mandate treatment, says Patty Stark, a defence lawyer at
Vancouver's drug and community courts.

But Stark believes that those who choose rehab to avoid jail wouldn't
succeed unless they wanted to clean up.

However, the Baldy Hughes Therapeutic Community near Prince George,
founded by former B.C. MLA Lorne Mayencourt, has been working with
police and Crown counsel on a pilot project to divert addicts into
their long-term program via conditional sentences. Seven residents at
the centre are there on such arrangements, says facility director
Marshall Smith.

"I do believe that forcing people into treatment can work," Smith
says. "It's a very common sort of old adage that the addict's got to
want to change, and typically that's true.

"The problem is when you're out in active addiction, you're not
capable of making those decisions. Once there's a period of
stabilization, then nine times out of 10 the addict will seek the
treatment, or go along with the treatment."

David Pavlus, founder of the 25-year-old Last Door long-term
treatment centre in New Westminster, also believes forced treatment
can work. During a visit to a respected long-term addiction facility
in California, he spoke with recovered addicts who had been
court-ordered into treatment.

"A lot of them were saying, 'I felt like I got saved,'" Pavlus says.

Response to my column on forced treatment was torrential.

The vast majority of readers strongly supported my view, including
Rick Frey, father of one of serial killer Robert Pickton's victims.

Marnie Frey might not have died if she had been forced into drug
treatment, Rick Frey says.

"It seems archaic to say, 'lock them up,' but they are in no
condition to make their own choices," Frey says. "We took Marnie to
rehab so many times but the system never had the power to hold [her].
She was a great, caring person but had no control over her addiction.

"It seems like all we are doing is feeding their habit and waiting
for them to die."

The most compelling argument against my proposal came from B.C. Civil
Liberties Association executive director David Eby and drug court
defence lawyer Jeremy Guild, who believe most drug addicts in the
Downtown Eastside wouldn't need to be coerced into long-term treatment.

If facilities were available, "the majority of those people would be
interested in a service like that," Eby says.

Eby says 200 to 500 of the 5,000 addicts in the Downtown Eastside are
so far gone in their addictions and mental illness that they aren't
capable of making rational decisions.

Those severe cases could be directed into long-term drug treatment
under the B.C. Mental Health Act, he says. At present, when police
take those citizens into custody, they are usually held for a day or
two in hospital then released back onto the streets, where no
effective support services for them exist, Eby adds.

But the majority of addicts in the area are capable of rational
decision-making, and forcing them into treatment would violate their
civil rights, Eby says.

"If you want to take your welfare cheque and spend the whole thing on
crack, that's your right," Eby says. "It's our moral obligation to
offer them a way out of it, but it's their right to make that stupid decision."

Guild, lead duty counsel at Vancouver's drug court, says many addicts
want treatment, but can't get it. In addition to drastic expansion of
drug-treatment facilities, much more must to be done to prevent young
people from becoming addicts, Guild says.

"Shouldn't we be dealing with addiction way earlier, like before it
starts?" Guild says.

Education and early-intervention programs would attack the addiction
problem at its roots, Guild says.

I couldn't agree more. And whether we force addicts into treatment or
make it a matter of choice, the solution to this problem is a vastly
expanded system of long-term treatment.

It's worth the money. Just ask George Abbott.