CANADA: Mandatory minimum sentences fail to deliver, says CAMH

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>
> http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2009/04/c5665.html
>
> Mandatory minimum sentences fail to deliver, says CAMH
>
> TORONTO, Nov. 4 /CNW/ - Mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related
> offences are an expensive and ineffective approach to substance use
> problems in Canada. That's the message being delivered today by an
> addictions professional at Canada's largest mental health and
> addictions treatment and research hospital to a Senate Committee on
> Bill C-15 - legislation that would create mandatory minimum sentences
> for certain drug-related offences.
>
> Wayne Skinner, deputy clinical director of the Addictions Program at
> the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), has worked in
> substance abuse for more than three decades. He appears at the Senate
> Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs today alongside
> Dr. Gabor Mate, a physician and author with extensive experience in
> addictions.
>
> "The evidence from the U.S. and other jurisdictions tells us that
> mandatory minimum sentences are most effective at increasing prison
> populations and the cost of jailing them," Skinner tells the Senate
> Standing Committee today. "Reducing the demand for illicit drugs by
> investing in addiction treatment, including drug treatment courts,
> have proven to be much more cost effective and successful approaches."
>
> CAMH submitted a brief to both the House of Commons and Senate
> Committees examining Bill C-15. The submission is available at
> www.camh.net . CAMH believes that drug use is fundamentally a health
> problem that should be dealt with within a public health framework.
> Incarcerating large numbers of small scale drug dealers who are
> selling drugs to support their own substance use problem only adds new
> problems such the risk of contracting HIV or Hepatitis C. Also, the U.S.
> experience with mandatory minimums has led to ballooning prison
> populations. This policy is now being reversed in several states and
> resources are instead being directed to drug treatment programs.
>
> "I encourage Senators to reflect on the overwhelming evidence telling
> us that mandatory minimum sentences cost governments more and fail to
> reduce the significant harm and cost of substance abuse," said
> Skinner.
>
> For further information: For more information or to arrange interviews
> contact Michael Torres, CAMH Media Relations,
> 416-595-6015 ormedia@camh.net
>
>
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