What Happens When The Person That Is Accused Of A Drug Offence Is Also An Addict
The question is, are they able to completely abstain in the future to make sure that their record remains clean and that the consequences don’t become more serious.
Courts do take a different view of a person who is addicted, who actually suffers from a mental health addiction as it relates to drugs. If that’s the scenario that clients find themselves in, we have a tremendous number of resources and a great deal of leverage in terms of associating clients with expert medical professionals, psychologists, psychiatrists, addiction counselors, and with formal programs that are both in and around the Toronto area. These can be day programs, where a person may attend for an hour during the day, or residential programs, where a person is admitted into a residence for weeks or months at a time. The type of program depends on the severity of the addiction problem.
The upside is that there is no doubt that, if people are seen to be actively trying to address their addiction problem when they appear before the courts, they are in a much better position, and the court is likely to view them more favorably. In Toronto, and in some other jurisdictions, a pilot project, which has become permanent, is the drug treatment court. One of the purposes of this special court is to put people into contact with the court-supervised drug treatment system and permit them to avoid custodial sentences. The system allows people to be released on bail when they’re facing serious drug charges, but there are some very complicated eligibility requirements. It’s not necessarily simple to know whether or not you’re going to be eligible. You need to be in contact with a lawyer who is familiar with the drug treatment court and whether you’re eligible for that specific program. If not, it’s obviously very valuable to have a lawyer who’s got the network and the connections to find another program that is suitable for you.
This is a government-sponsored and government-overseen program and is particularly suited for a person who’s been in custody on a regular basis. Duty counsel will try their best to help a person into the program, but I think it’s still to someone’s advantage to have private counsel if they’re able to do it. Obviously, cost is always a factor, but when you’re dealing with duty counsel lawyers, you’re dealing with lawyers who are responsible, typically, for 20, 30, or more people on a given day. It’s difficult for them to provide the kind of attention that you might want in terms of being able to answer all of your questions and to communicate with the Crown Attorney at length. In our firm, when a lawyer attends court, typically they’re attending court only for that one client on a given day. Sometimes, there may be a couple more, but you certainly are getting a level of service that duty counsel, try as they might, aren’t able to provide. And if the scenario is more complicated in terms of eligibility requirements and if you need somebody who has access to other programs and other professionals, then certainly somebody who has a background in defending drug charges is your best choice. I have been a duty counsel and trained others, and it is a phenomenal program for what it can do. But it is very difficult for someone as a duty counsel lawyer to provide the kind of one-on-one engaged service that a private lawyer can do for someone. The program is just not able to provide that level of service.
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If you, or someone you care about, is dealing with criminal law issues in the Toronto, Ontario Region, contact Adler Bytensky Prutschi Shikhman for a consultation.
