Plan for Saskatoon drug court a good idea says expert

Last week, Saskatoon mayor, Charlie Clark, spoke about the city’s meth and opioid crisis and the plans to address the problem.

One of the proposed plans was to bring a drug treatment court to Saskatoon.

Regina based lawyer, Jeff Deagle was on The John Gormley show Tuesday morning to talk about his experiences in Regina’s drug court and the potential benefits of having one in Saskatoon.

In his interview with Gormley, Deagle said that many crimes, often property related like house and car break-ins, are due to underlying addictions issues.

“The purpose of the drug treatment court was to get some of the people from the main courts into the therapeutic courts to address the underlying problems of their criminal offending which is generally the drug addiction,” he said.

According to Deagle, people who go through the drug court may receive lighter sentences at the end of the program but that doesn’t mean that it is open to anybody looking for an easy way out.

“There’s some safeguards for eligibility and there is a specific prosecutor who is meant to deal with the drug treatment court and to make sure certain people meet the criteria,” said Deagle.

“It’s fairly intensive. It’s not one of these things where if you are an offender you say ‘I can get a lighter sentence by just hopping into drug treatment court’. It’s a big deal and if you breach during the process you may end up worse off, penalty wise, than had you not entered the program.”

Deagle said the drug court program takes about a year and requires an agreement to be signed that the offender will eventually plead guilty. The therapeutic program also includes inpatient treatment, counselling and a weekly check-in with the judge to make sure you are staying on track.

Saskatoon’s plans to bring a drug treatment court to the city are still in the preliminary stages.