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. - --- MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman