Nova Scotia father says jail not the right place to treat addictions
Carl Baltzer doesn’t mince words when he says jail was never the place for his youngest son.
“I remember when my kids were small, and I always used to tell people that I never worried about Andrew. It was the older one,” Carl recalls.
It pains the Centreville, N.S., resident to see the irony in this statement now.
Andrew was lively, regularly lauded as a social butterfly and old soul. His older brother was quiet, more reserved.
Neither boy wound up in too much trouble — nothing out of the ordinary.
That was until things changed for Andrew around 13. He started experimenting with drugs and experiencing psychosis. He told his father he heard voices. He said he felt different from his classmates.
“When he smoked marijuana, he felt that those things went away,” Carl says.
The underlying mental health issues, however, were never addressed.
By 15, Andrew was using OxyContin and hydromorphone.
“He got introduced to opiates through a doctor’s son,” says Carl, estimating that Andrew was battling an addiction at 16.
Nine years later, Andrew is now a hardened version of the boy his father never worried about.
Rehabs, overdoses, court, jail — he’s lived it all.
The 25-year-old recently finished a period of federal incarceration with a metal plate in his jaw and a prison-ink tattoo sprawling down the front of his neck.
“All the jail has done to him is give him new bad ideas,” Carl says.
Andrew served time for one count each of unlawfully producing methamphetamine and mischief, charges he pleaded guilty to while enrolled in the Court Monitored Mental Health Program (CMMHP) in Kentville.
He was sentenced to two years and 30 days in a federal penitentiary on Jan. 18, 2018.
At the time, Carl held out hope that his son would get the help he needed in prison.
Andrew had already proven to be wily in finding ways to get out of both public and pricey private treatment programs Carl is still paying for.
“He’s OD’d twice,” says Carl, thinking back to his son’s early 20s. “They almost lost him once.”
He believed jail would mean Andrew had a roof over his head every night, food to eat, distance from opioids and access to treatment programs.
Carl’s partner, Lesley Sweet, helped advocate for her stepson to be placed in a long-term rehab program, rather than jail.
Justice officials overseeing Andrew’s case were agreeable to a voluntary, court-monitored treatment option but, in the end, Andrew was not.
“The root of his problems is the mental, you see,” Sweet says.
Carl says his son violated the conditions of the arrangement offering an alternative to jail by crushing a pill and snorting his own prescription medication while under surveillance.
Andrew served his time in Burnside, Springhill, Pictou in Nova Scotia and in Dorchester, New Brunswick. He suffered a broken jaw after a surprise kick to the face in Springhill.
Carl now wishes he challenged the advice that prompted Andrew’s guilty pleas.
He remembers the pangs of regret he felt while driving a newly-released Andrew home from jail.
“It was exciting to start with and then, after being with him a couple hours I’m thinking, ‘well, not much has changed.’” Andrew continues to refuse to seek help.
The Annapolis Valley couple believes Andrew’s story is one that highlights the importance of long-term, courtordered rehabilitation programs becoming a treatment option throughout Canada.
“There’s got to be a place where these kids can go because their crimes are driven by the drug,” says Sweet, stressing the importance of having live-in programs spanning one to two years in place for qualifying offenders who are not ready to voluntarily seek treatment for a substance use disorder.
As it stands, they’re left hoping Andrew will find the motivation to voluntarily commit to an existing treatment program — sooner rather than later.
“I’d like to see him settle down, fall in love… have a family, and get on with life,” Sweet says.
Justice Canada spokesperson Ian McLeod said the federal department has provided funding for the administration of Drug Treatment Courts — a provincial responsibility — in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador so far in Atlantic Canada.
Participation, however, must be completely voluntary. The first Drug Treatment Court in Newfoundland and Labrador launched Nov. 30, 2018.
“It is an alternative approach for offenders with serious addictions to illicit drugs, who commit non-violent, drugmotivated offences,” said Danielle Barron, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice and Public Safety for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.
“It brings together judicial supervision and treatment services for substance abuse and establishes long-term supports outside the criminal justice system.”
Multi-disciplinary teams of health professionals are made available to inmates serving terms of incarceration, but Barron noted that “responsivity to program participation is of paramount importance to a program’s effectiveness.”
Nova Scotia has Drug Treatment Courts in Dartmouth and Kentville — Andrew’s hometown.
Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, says progress has been made in terms of public awareness, harm reduction and improving access to treatment for opioid use disorder.
But he too sees the need for more social supports that address the root cause of problematic substance use.
He noted that there are some areas of North America with policing or justice systems that place a greater emphasis on directing offenders linked to addictions-related crimes to social programs right away.
“The whole principal is around treating people with health and addiction issues as a health issue, not as a criminal issue,” Strang says.
“There’s a lot more we need to do.”