Hello, everyone. I just wanted to add to the medical and epidemiological evidence that I presented two weeks ago.
I want to remind you that 90% of people with FASD suffer from conduct behavioural problems and disruptive behavioural impulsivity; 80% have receptive and expressive language deficit; and 70% have developmental and cognitive disorders and developmental delays. Therefore, people with FASD should definitely be treated differently in the legal system as patients with cognitive, intellectual, and functional impairment.
FASD needs to be defined under the Criminal Code. Procedures should be established for assessing the range and severity of FASD so that its role in an offence can be taken into account in sentencing as a mitigating factor. Presumably that would allow offenders to be steered toward the support they might need, rather than just incarcerated.