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Almost 200 addicts have graduated from Vancouver’s drug treatment court over the last decade, according to Solicitor General Shirley Bond, who was on hand Wednesday at the Wing Sang Building to celebrate the court’s 10-year anniversary.
“Each of the (graduates) has faced challenges that any one of us would find very daunting, yet they have persevered and turned their lives around,” Bond said to the packed gallery of politicians and media.
The specialized court processes criminal cases involving drug addicts, enforcing treatment and strict conditions for offenders, whose progress is court-monitored. Staff also helps offenders seeking housing and employment.
Those who are successful can have their charges suspended or postponed, or may receive out-of-jail sentences. Unsuccessful participants, however, are tried as part of the regular court system.
The solicitor general also shared the story of Lisa, a young woman who successfully completed court-mandated treatment more than six years ago.
Lisa has since been studying social work and, in a turn that Bond called “poignant,” is now completing a practicum at the drug court and resource centre that first helped her.
“But her story is only one example of how providing the right set of supports can drastically improve someone’s life or perhaps even save it,” Bond added.
According to the federal government’s anti-drug strategy, the court helps to cut down costs of law enforcement, prosecution and incarceration of drug addicts by approximately $9-billion annually.
The first of six drug treatment courts in Canada launched in 1998 in Toronto. Vancouver’s drug treatment court was launched in December 2001.