OTTAWA GETS DATA TO TACKLE ADDICTION ISSUE

Given the latest federal government information confirming the link between
addiction and crime, it's obvious where Ottawa should be putting more
resources - into stronger efforts at combatting drug and alcohol dependency.

Many experts in the field of criminology and social work have noted the
high rate of addiction in our jails, but a new study by the Canadian Centre
on Substance Abuse in Montague reinforces this opinion. It says almost half
the crimes of those in our federal jails are directly linked to drug and
alcohol use. Researchers discovered that more than half of federal inmates
reported being intoxicated at the time they committed their offences and in
23 per cent of cases, the crime was committed to get drugs or alcohol.

The study is apparently the first to create a causal link between
addictions and crime. Those who've been dealing with inmates and have
already accepted the link between the two hardly need a study to confirm
their own experience in dealing with this clientele. But they should be
encouraged by it. What the study does is put a greater onus on the federal
government to do something about the data. After all, why has Ottawa
created the centre on substance abuse - considered a leader in examining
the role of addiction in crime and how the cycle can be broken - if not to
act on the intelligence it produces?

So if nothing else, the study, which got major coverage during an
international addictions and criminal behaviour conference last week in
Charlottetown, should bolster our expectations that more funding will, in
fact, be put toward helping inmates beat their addictions. It's the
sensible thing to do. If drug and alcohol dependency is what's propelling
many offenders toward breaking the law, then we should concentrate more
resources toward addressing the dependency. It may be an extra expenditure
for the taxpayer, but the dividends are worth it if people are freed of
their addictions and society is spared the criminal behaviour linked to
those addictions.