RADICAL COURT HELPS ADDICTS

VANCOUVER -- Fully in the grip of a three-year-long heroin jag, Mark sags
into a chair outside courtroom 309 after appearing before the drug
treatment court judge and promising to clean up.

Mark and a few other addicts -- cocaine, heroin, or both -- are making
their case before provincial court Judge Jane Godfrey, who presides over
the innovative and newly opened drug treatment court.

It's only the second in Canada after one began in Toronto a few years ago.

"Look at me. I look like a mess," says Mark, stating the obvious. "I've got
scabs all over me. It's time to clean up."

He had recently got out of jail "and got right back into it" when he was
arrested last week for low-level trafficking -- defined as dealing to
support your own habit.

This time, however, he might get the break and the opportunity he says he
wants. He's being offered an alternative -- the drug treatment court or
back to jail.

A pilot project of the federal and B.C. governments and the City of
Vancouver, the drug treatment court opened in early December. Those
selected for the program must go to treatment every day, attend the court
to report on their progress and submit to random urine tests.