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.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens