Rehabilitating drug addicts means giving them a reason to live – judge

Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano made an inspiring and emotional inaugural speech to mark his first sitting yesterday after spending the past six years as a magistrate.

He almost immediately spoke of the time he spent presiding over drug cases, which he said had left an effect that would remain with him to the day he died.

With tears in his eyes, the judge thanked his parents and family for their support during the hardest of times and, in a light-hearted moment, he recalled how his mother had tried to dissuade him from becoming a lawyer because, as she put it, they were untrustworthy.

His speech was dedicated mostly to his work as magistrate, ruling over drug cases.

Instead of condemning young people who fell prey to this problem, “we should be trying to understand them to make sure they are put back on track,” he said.

There had been inspiring moments Mr Justice Quintano said he would not forget anytime soon. In this connection, he mentioned a case where he had personally intervened and convinced an employer to give another chance to a young man who had been found guilty of drug possession. The young man, in fact, managed to hold the job. In another case, a person who had been a drug pusher had managed to change his life after admitting his mistakes. Today, this man was working, he said, insisting that only a few years ago such an honest path would have been alien to the person.

Mr Justice Quintano said he was mentioning these cases to encourage others faced with drug addiction. “We should be helping where we can and not just condemning people,” he insisted.

The parents of drug abusers were especially in need of help, he noted, stressing that the majority were good people. Practically in every case he would call them to the Bench and encourage them to help their children overcome the problems and for them to go to the prison to visit them, disregarding what neighbours or anyone else said.

It was useless sending people to prison if they could not be helped. Rehabilitation, the new judge said, did not consist of giving drug users methadone to overcome the problem but a reason to live.

If one did not believe in God then one should at least have something special in one’s life to give one sense and meaning, he added. The judge in particular thanked the police drug squad for the all the hard work they had done over the years. He also thanked lecturers and professors at the University and his family.