SASKATCHEWAN EYES DRUG-ADDICTED TEEN BILL

REGINA -- The Alberta legislative member who spearheaded a law forcing
drug-addicted teens into treatment is lending her support to a similar bill
in Saskatchewan.

Mary Anne Jablonski, a Tory legislative member for Red Deer, was in the
Saskatchewan Legislature yesterday.

Jablonski said she supports the Saskatchewan Party, which is trying to get
the province to pass a similar bill because it empowers parents in the face
of a growing problem with drug addiction.

She said she respects NDP Community Resources Minister Joanne Crofford,
who's been reluctant to embrace the Opposition legislation but has been
pushing the envelope of the Child and Family Services Protection Act by
having police seize children exposed to drug abuse.

"That's a wonderful step but that doesn't leave a tool for parents to use,"
she told reporters.

The Alberta bill requires that youths who are addicted to drugs go into
mandatory detox for five days. If necessary, parents can go through the
courts to get an order to apprehend their children to force them into
treatment.

"This bill is a tool for parents who want to help their children. We
already have legislation in child welfare but not everybody is involved in
the child welfare system, we have legislation in the criminal justice
system but kids don't want to be arrested and charged with a crime before
they get help," Jablonski said.

"There has to be a middle ground and the middle ground allows parents to
seek help for their children through the courts."

Crofford said making parents go to court to get their kids treatment may be
too much.

"You can't just go to a court without some facts. You can't go without an
assessment. You can't go without some work having been done about the
situation.

"So unless you want parents to have to go independently to lawyers to put
their case together for them, at this moment in the province, it's
child-protection workers who put those cases together."

The Alberta legislation, which was passed in April, has not yet been
proclaimed because there are not enough treatment centres in place. The
maximum time before the bill can come into effect is one year, but
Jablonski is hoping it will be implemented within six months.

In Saskatchewan, there are no treatment centres set up to allow mandatory
treatment, which Crofford said is another reason she opposes the
Saskatchewan Party bill.

Crofford has instructed her department to look at changes to Section 18 of
the Child and Family Services Act that could allow for mandatory treatment.

Currently, the act allows for children under the age of 16 to be
apprehended and returned to the care of either their family or a foster
home or become a ward of the minister.