Life In Juvenile Detention

That's what the B.C. government health minister was telling reporters on Friday.George Abbott was speaking of his governments reopening of the antiquated Willingdon Youth Detention Center in Burnaby. The building and grounds are to be used to house the victims of the "new" drug court that's being set up in Burnaby and scheduled to open this summer. The court will "offer a 'choice'" to anyone appearing before it,between jail and treatment.If there was treatment that had a statistical chance in hell of helping even a significant number of these chronic offenders(read drug addicts)there'd be nothing to talk about.Abbott is contending that the facility will be used solely for the housing of people with dual diagnosis,meaning drug and mental problems.I don't trust Mr.Abbott or his government.Retrofitting an old prison with 100 beds and suggesting that there's a very real possibility that some will be there for life is unconscionable but not a stretch for this government.The drug courts were tried in the 70's and so was the idea of locking up addicts for being addicts and keeping them in prison till they were cured or dead. Drug treatment should be available on demand and should be for as long as is necessary to attain it's objectives.Forced treatment is not has not been and never will be successful in treating addictions.This idea has been tried all over the world and has never been successful in a statistically prove-able form anywhere.Every time significant results have been claimed,they've been shown to be either in confined circumstances or just not true.I'm sure it's possible to keep an addict in custody forever and have them remain clean but there's no quality of life in prison.People that want treatment should have a place where they can go and stay for as long as it takes.Opening places like Willingdon and pretending we're doing these people a service is worse than doing nothing.It takes money away from projects and policies that might just have a chance of really working.We will never jail our way out of the drug problem.Things like this only fool the public into thinking something constructive is being done which couldn't be further from the truth.

No More Swat Style Pot Raids

If there's no changes,a recent B.C. Supreme court ruling should spell the end to SWAT style drug raids in B.C. Justice Catherine Bruce ruled that the police practice of using a battering ram to smash down doors and entering the premises with guns drawn and ready and pointed at peoples heads was a recipe for tragedy and could not be tolerated.The majority of Canadians seem to agree if the papers are any measure.The judge was probably aware of several recent cases in the US in which deaths occurred and not always to the correct targets.Of course there were the usual cries from the kill em all crowd,led by Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts.Watts finds evil in every corner and has traveled all over Europe in an effort to support her drug courts and other lock 'em up measures.She managed to avoid all the countries with harm reduction policies and hit all the pro prohibition countries which proves that you can find evidence for just about any plan you want to back.Watts is first to claim success if it suits her but also first to complain of runaway crime if that fits her agenda.The simple fact is that the police have been using this kind of brute tactic for years and it is one of the last remaining practices from an era where they could do what they wanted to addicts as they were considered less than human.It's sad that there are still people like Watts and Steven Harper that still think they can arrest their way out of the drug problem.They've had nearly 100 years and it's just getting worse.They've scared off all the old hippie types and what's left is a bunch of criminal gangs with world wide connections and no respect for life.If that's progress,something is very wrong.