'We have the answer': Drug court model could help with opioid crisis, says manager

It was Christmas Eve 2014 and Ryan Curry was waiting in a rundown motel to do a drug deal.

He said that whenthe police arrested him instead,he was almost relieved.

I got outby the grace of God. I'm here right now.- Ryan Currie

"There was a point in time where I didn't think I could ever get out," said Curry, 28 years old and now clean. "But I got outby the grace of God. I'm here right now."

Curry, addicted to opioids since the age of 17,graduated from the Edmonton Drug Treatment Court Service program on Dec. 21, 2016almost two years to the day he was picked up by the cops for drug trafficking and possession.

Of the nearly400 applicants accepted into the recovery and reintegration program over the past decade, he's among themore than 100 people to complete it. And 70 per cent of them have not been back in the system since.

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Funding cuts

As the number of people dying fromopioid-relatedoverdose deaths in Alberta continues to climb, Edmonton drug court managerGraceFroese questions why it's operating on ashoestring budget.

"Everybody's kind of out there saying, 'What can we do, what can we do?'"Froesesaid. "We have the answer right here in this model."

From 2005-2015, the Edmonton drug court operated with$583,000 each year from Justice Canada. That funding was scaled back by almost 50 per cent over the past two years. Alberta Justice has stepped up to fill some of the void, butFroesesaid it's not even close to enough.

While the programpreviously had room for 30-40 offenders, it can now only work with 20 at a time.

Liberal LeaderDavid Swann, a former medical officer of health, wants to see money reinvested into the Edmonton drug court and Calgary drug court programs.

"They needto be very substantially increased if we're really serious about getting these folks into care instead of just punishing them and treating this as a criminal policing issue instead of a health issue," Swannsaid.

"Over 50 per cent of people in jails have mental health and addictions problems. That's not an appropriate place to manage these. When they come out, they're sometimes more damaged psychologically than when they went in and they return quickly to the relief that they find in drugs."

Road to recovery

Currywas in and out of jail for non-indictable offences prior to 2014.

"It all goes along with the lifestyle and what I was living," he said. "I was sick."

Curry had a number of near-fatal overdoses during that time, including one so serious that he was hospitalized in a coma for nine days. That was two months before his Christmas Eve arrest.

He was told that while he was in the hospital, his sister visited. Sitting in theremand centre coming in and out of consciousness as he went through withdrawal, Curry thought about her.

"You can imagine the thought in my sister's head when she can't get ahold of me Christmas Eve," Curry said. "Just me thinking about that ... How can I put her through that?"

Froese said Curry was exceptionally motivated to turn his life around, which is a precondition to going through the drug court program.

He was done with the lifestyle and he had sunk pretty much to his bottom.- Grace Froese, Edmonton drug court manager

"He was done with the lifestyle and he had sunk pretty much to his bottom," Froese said."His presentation was such that, 'My life is over if I don't get into drug court.'

"When he started the program, he committed from the beginning," she said. "He put in so much work and so much effort and dedicated himself to recovering, getting clean and rebuilding a new life and we see the success of that today."

roberta.bell@cbc.ca

@roberta__bell