A POLICY THAT HELPS NO ONE

Under Drug Diversion, These May Be Your Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Cards.

Unbeknownst to many of us who trust the legal system, this province
has begun an expensive program that protects those who prey on
society's weakest members-drug addicts. It costs millions of tax
dollars to implement, but it excludes the very people it was
instituted to protect.

I was having lunch with an old friend, now a lawyer, when he made me
aware of something called "drug diversion." It is a relatively new
program being offered by the Springboard program in tandem with the
Toronto Police that is geared towards putting drug addicts in rehab
rather than in prison. The Springboard program was established in
association with the Addiction Research Foundation, which is
responsible for many positive mandates in the drug community.

Under drug diversion, if you are caught with drugs on you, even if you
are committing a (non-violent) crime, and the authorities are
convinced that you are simply supporting your habit, then you are put
in rehab instead of jail. Completion of the rehab program results in
the addict having a clean criminal record afterwards. This does not
apply to any amount of drugs; only the possession of, say, under two
grams of crack cocaine (just enough so that it appears to be for
personal use only).

The program itself is a good idea with great potential. The problem is
that, like any good idea, it takes good people to make it work, not
bureaucrats. Unfortunately, these are the people in charge of the
program-morons who are generally more concerned with statistics than
common sense. Rather than helping the people it was meant to, namely
the addicts, it is sheltering those who actually deserve the time they
get. It is helping drug dealers and career criminals to get a free
ride. All a dealer needs to do is have drugs on them, claim that they
have an addiction and that their crime was perpetrated to support that
addiction, and presto! They are welcomed with open arms, and they get
the added benefit of offering no jail time if the perpetrator remains
sober for a certain period, usually six months.

On the other hand, if you are a drug addict who has spent all their
money on crack, and you get caught committing a crime to support your
habit, you have virtually no chance of getting the aid you need. If
you don't have drugs on you to support your addiction story, precisely
because you're broke addict in the middle of robbing a store, there
will be no drug diversion for you.

The only criminals this program helps are the wealthy dealer who poses
as an addict. The addict herself gets to go to jail. But hey, at least
your dealer will be waiting for you when you get out.