Unbeknownst to many of us who trust the legal system, this province has begun an expensive program that protects those who prey on society’s weakest members-drug addicts. It costs millions of tax dollars to implement, but it excludes the very people it was instituted to protect.
I was having lunch with an old friend, now a lawyer, when he made me aware of something called “drug diversion.” It is a relatively new program being offered by the Springboard program in tandem with the Toronto Police that is geared towards putting drug addicts in rehab rather than in prison. The Springboard program was established in association with the Addiction Research Foundation, which is responsible for many positive mandates in the drug community.
Under drug diversion, if you are caught with drugs on you, even if you are committing a (non-violent) crime, and the authorities are convinced that you are simply supporting your habit, then you are put in rehab instead of jail. Completion of the rehab program results in the addict having a clean criminal record afterwards. This does not apply to any amount of drugs; only the possession of, say, under two grams of crack cocaine (just enough so that it appears to be for personal use only).
The program itself is a good idea with great potential. The problem is that, like any good idea, it takes good people to make it work, not bureaucrats. Unfortunately, these are the people in charge of the program-morons who are generally more concerned with statistics than common sense. Rather than helping the people it was meant to, namely the addicts, it is sheltering those who actually deserve the time they get. It is helping drug dealers and career criminals to get a free ride. All a dealer needs to do is have drugs on them, claim that they have an addiction and that their crime was perpetrated to support that addiction, and presto! They are welcomed with open arms, and they get the added benefit of offering no jail time if the perpetrator remains sober for a certain period, usually six months.
On the other hand, if you are a drug addict who has spent all their money on crack, and you get caught committing a crime to support your habit, you have virtually no chance of getting the aid you need. If you don’t have drugs on you to support your addiction story, precisely because you’re broke addict in the middle of robbing a store, there will be no drug diversion for you.
The only criminals this program helps are the wealthy dealer who poses as an addict. The addict herself gets to go to jail. But hey, at least your dealer will be waiting for you when you get out.
