La Prairie Carol, Gliksman Louis, Erickson Patricia G, Wall Ronald, Newton-Taylor Brenda
National Crime Prevention Centre, Department of Justice, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Subst Use Misuse. 2002;37(12-13):1529-66. doi: 10.1081/ja-120014421.
The first drug treatment court in Canada began operation in Toronto in December of 1998. This paper describes some aspects of the evolution, structure, and operation of this court. In addition, the federally-funded evaluation of the new program has produced data from the first 18 months of its full operation when 198 drug-dependent individuals were admitted. These preliminary results are described and compared to the findings of an Australian study and to select American studies. Important differences in sentencing practices and options for drug offenses between Canada and the United States are highlighted. Even at this early stage of development, it is suggested that the types of clients retained and more successful in this Canadian experiment may be quite different from the more typical American drug treatment court clientele. The need for careful monitoring and more complete, long-term information is emphasized before the viability of this approach is established for Canada.
加拿大首个毒品治疗法庭于1998年12月在多伦多开始运作。本文描述了该法庭的一些发展、结构和运作方面的情况。此外，由联邦政府资助的对该新项目的评估产生了其全面运作头18个月的数据，当时有198名药物依赖者被接纳。文中描述了这些初步结果，并将其与一项澳大利亚研究以及一些美国研究的结果进行了比较。突出了加拿大和美国在毒品犯罪量刑做法和选择上的重要差异。即便在这一早期发展阶段，也有人提出，在这个加拿大的试验中留住并更成功的客户类型可能与美国更典型的毒品治疗法庭的客户群体有很大不同。在确定这种方法在加拿大是否可行之前，强调了进行仔细监测以及获取更完整的长期信息的必要性。
