Pubdate: Mon, 06 May 2002 Source: Guardian, The (CN PI) Copyright: 2002 The Guardian, Charlottetown Guardian Group Incorporated Contact: http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/174 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens