In Alberta’s cities, something remarkable is happening. From Grande Prairie to Medicine Hat, specialized Drug Treatment Courts (DTCs) are quietly transforming lives once written off by the justice system. These programs demand accountability but also offer redemption. Saskatchewan should take note and take action.Drug-driven crime has become an anchor around the neck of prairie communities. Police, courts, and emergency rooms are trapped in a revolving door of addiction and petty crime. .OLDCORN: International Agreements Act puts Alberta in charge of international deals.Yet Alberta’s Drug Treatment Courts are breaking that cycle. They fuse firm judicial supervision with real recovery supports. This isn’t soft justice, it’s justice that actually works.Under section 720(2) of the Criminal Code, participants plead guilty but are given a suspended sentence while they fight for sobriety instead of serving time. They face curfews, random drug testing, and mandatory counselling. They have to perform 100 hours of community work and build sober living habits. .It’s accountability backed by hope and it’s producing results.Calgary’s DTC reports that 76% of graduates avoid crime afterward, while 67% have fewer police contacts. Across Alberta, about 70% of graduates do not reoffend.These aren’t cherry-picked numbers. They represent people who’ve reclaimed their lives and neighbourhoods now safer because of it..HANNAFORD: Do Calgary's new councillors have it in them to repeal open zoning?.Even participants admit these programs are “harder than going to jail.” They’re not exaggerating. DTCs impose structure and require candour with judges, probation officers, and treatment counsellors — all working together through Alberta Justice, Legal Aid Alberta, and organizations like the John Howard Society. This is rehabilitation grounded in consequences and sustained by community partnerships..Saskatchewan should follow Alberta’s example and build DTCs into a full recovery-focused network across the province. The benefits are obvious. Every graduate frees up police time, reduces incarceration costs, and returns to productive work. .OLDCORN: Alberta NDP proves it's the government union party, not the working parents party.Every graduate means one less repeat offender, one more taxpayer, one more parent back home where they belong.But if Alberta provides the blueprint for accountability, Portugal offers a lesson in compassion. In 2001, Portugal decriminalized all drugs under Law No. 30/2000 and replaced prosecution with health-based intervention..It didn’t spark chaos — it saved lives. Overdose deaths plummeted. HIV infections dropped. Jail populations fell sharply.Portugal’s model works through Commissions for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction — small regional panels of a lawyer, social worker, and medical expert that assess users within 72 hours. .BYFIELD: Why Edmonton’s city hall needs a conservative revolution.Instead of punishing, they steer people into voluntary treatment, impose fines, or recommend education and counselling. No empty preaching. No revolving jail cells. Just help when people are still reachable.Saskatchewan doesn’t need to legalize drugs or mimic Portugal’s entire approach. But it should borrow its core philosophy: treat drug dependence as a health issue that intersects with justice, not as a moral weakness best solved with confinement. .Accountability must lead somewhere, not end in a cell.Imagine a Saskatchewan where health workers, judges, and community organizations operate as one team — enforcing responsibility while providing the structure to rebuild lives. Pair Alberta’s disciplined Drug Treatment Courts with Portugal’s health-led spirit of recovery, and the result would be a system that punishes criminal behaviour while still believing in restoration.That’s real conservative leadership — practical, compassionate, and results-driven. Saskatchewan still needs to be “tough on crime.” But with a compassionate approach. .MacKINNON: The gathering Canadian political storm.It needs policies that actually make communities safer. Alberta has shown the model, and Portugal has shown the humanity. Premier Scott Moe’s government should seize this moment, expand Drug Treatment Courts province-wide, and prove that conservative principles can both uphold justice and redeem lives.If Moe acts now, Saskatchewan could lead the country in showing that reform and responsibility are not opposites — they are two sides of the same moral coin.
