Pubdate: Tue, 17 May 2005
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Brad Badelt
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

DRUG DEALERS NEED HELP, NOT JAIL, POLICE OFFICER SAYS

Treatment Can Keep Them From Crime: Researcher

VANCOUVER - Young drug dealers on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside need 
treatment -- not jail time -- to stop them from becoming hardened life-long 
criminals, according to an in-depth study by Insp. Kash Heed of the 
Vancouver police department.

But while advocating treatment for first-or second-time offenders, Heed 
said the small population of hard-core street-dealers -- many of whom have 
been convicted more than 30 times -- need to be kept off the streets with 
harsher jail sentences.

Heed's study of 600 dealers arrested between 2001 and 2002 showed 18- to 
24-year-old men progressing from property crimes to first-time drug 
offences to hard-core trafficking -- often despite spending time in prison 
- -- to feed growing addictions.

It's a bleak progression, and one that Heed, a former head of the Vancouver 
police drug section, says points to the need for more education and 
treatment targeting novice street-dealers.

"We have to look at intervention at different stages, versus always looking 
toward the legal system to solve our addiction problems," Heed said Monday 
in a phone interview.

His study showed most drug traffickers' first conviction happens before the 
age of 24 for property crimes. By their third conviction, the majority of 
dealers were given jail time -- at which point, Heed says, treatment needs 
to kick in.

"When you start to get over 10 convictions, these are your hard-core, 
incorrigible offenders that we're just going to have to keep focusing on 
and maybe throw the key away on them," Heed said.

Heed's study found nearly 15 per cent of street dealers on the Downtown 
Eastside had more than 30 prior criminal convictions, a group his study 
suggests is responsible for a "large number of the street-level sales."

The study re-affirms Vancouver's four pillar approach for the Downtown 
Eastside -- enforcement, harm reduction, treatment and prevention -- but 
suggests the emphasis should be on treatment rather than street-level 
enforcement.

"You can't have one pillar that's only three feet high and the others 10 
feet. It's not going to work -- the building's going to collapse." Heed said.

Donald MacPherson, Vancouver's drug policy coordinator, said most drug 
addicts find treatment voluntarily through community services such as 
needle exchanges, counselling offices or injection sites.

"The decision to go to treatment is a complex moment in one's life, and 
people try several times usually," he said. "It's a matter of having lots 
of opportunity."

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority spokeswoman Viviana Zanocco agreed: 
"Treatment doesn't work unless you really want to be treated, not just 
because you're having a bad day right now but because you want to change 
your life."

According to Zanocco, there's typically a two-day wait list for treatment 
beds in Vancouver.

While the number of beds hasn't increased recently, Zanocco said new 
home-treatment and day-treatment programs are now being offered.

A pilot project on the Downtown Eastside -- called the Vancouver drug court 
program -- is using more of a "carrot and stick" approach by offering 
treatment for convicted addicts, instead of jail time.

The project, which opened in December 2001, is for non-violent heroine and 
cocaine addicts convicted of drug-related offences.

By the Vancouver court's third anniversary, 23 people had "graduated" from 
the program, meaning they'd completed the treatment program and stayed off 
drugs for at least three months.

The federal and provincial governments are each providing $1.7 million over 
four years for the drug court.

"There's going to be a cost that we have to bear, because the cost of it 
being untreated far exceeds the cost of treatment," said Heed, who served 
on the steering committee for the pilot project.

After three years, the drug court program cost about $74,000 for each 
graduate, compared to $50,000 a year it costs taxpayers to keep a 
non-violent drug offender in jail.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman