Pubdate: Wed, 28 Sep 2005
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2005 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Cristin Schmitz, Canwest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?241 (Methamphetamine - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

MPS WEIGH MANDATORY TREATMENT FOR FELONS HOOKED ON CRYSTAL
METH

Outside The Criminal Context, Several Provinces Look For Ways To Help Users 
Of This Highly Addictive Drug

MPs want to examine whether the Criminal Code should be amended to force 
treatment on crystal meth-addicted criminals as part of a bill Ottawa will 
table to reform conditional sentences in the next few weeks.

Conservative justice critic Vic Toews said front-line street workers he met 
with last week in North Vancouver and Surrey, B.C., implored him to press 
the federal government for legislation to compel treatment for the growing 
number of addicts sentenced to prison after committing serious crimes, 
including homicide, while addled by the highly addictive chemical 
methamphetamine.

"To me, as an ex-prosecutor, hearing people talking about mandatory drug 
treatment is quite a radical suggestion because mandatory treatment was 
never viewed as effective," Toews said.

"But when I hear street workers suggesting it, I think it's time for us to 
at least consider it. What these individuals are saying is 'these 
(meth-addicted) people think they are in control, but they are out of 
control and there is absolutely no way you can reach these individuals 
except by incarcerating them and then having mandatory treatment.' "

Toews stressed the brain damage caused by the synthetic stimulant makes it 
a quite different problem from older drugs like heroin. "You are dealing 
with people who are addicts and who are now mentally ill," Toews said.

Several provinces are looking at amending their mental health laws to deal 
with crystal meth outside the criminal context. Alberta has enacted a law 
to give families the right to ask a court to force their drug-addicted 
children into treatment. Saskatchewan is considering following suit.

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler has said he intends to introduce a bill in 
the next few weeks that will sharply limit the use of house arrest and 
other conditional sentences in cases that involve sexual or serious violent 
crimes. The bill will not deal with sentencing for crystal meth in particular.

But when it goes before the Commons justice committee for study, Windsor, 
Ont., MP Joe Comartin, the NDP justice critic, said he would be willing to 
look at the idea of forced treatment for meth addicts in prison.

Comartin stressed the evidence he has seen on forced treatment for heavy 
users suggests it doesn't work.

"But we may have a different set of circumstances here for crystal meth ... 
because that seems to have some of its own particular dynamics," he 
observed. "Crystal meth will get you addicted sometimes with the first use 
so the methodology of forced treatment may in fact work, simply because 
it's not a long-term addiction."

MPs will have to consider whether it would be more appropriate to leave the 
issue to be dealt with solely under provincial health legislation.

"Are you going to use a criminal punitive model to implement or are you 
going to use a medical mental health model?" Comartin asked.

Department of Justice lawyer David Daubney, who oversees sentencing reforms 
for the government, noted forcing treatment on those who commit crystal 
meth-related crimes could run afoul of the addicts' charter rights to 
liberty and security of the person and not to be subjected to cruel and 
unusual punishment.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom