Pubdate: Sat, 07 Oct 2000 Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Copyright: 2000 The Sydney Morning Herald Contact: GPO Box 3771, Sydney NSW 2001 Fax: +61-(0)2-9282 3492 Website: http://www.smh.com.au/ Forum: http://forums.fairfax.com.au/ Author: Bernard Lagan ONLY TWO ADDICTS OF 50 PASS DRUG COURT TREATMENT Only two of the first 50 people to be dealt with by the experimental NSW Drug Court successfully completed its addict-treatment program, a report has disclosed. The report finds that 38 of the first 50 drug offenders who elected to take the treatment program - rather than go to jail - were ejected from it, mostly because they relapsed into illegal drug use. Another 10 were still in the program, which mostly relies on methadone or abstinence to treat offenders. The Drug Court was established in Western Sydney in February last year for a two-year trial to see if its alternative approach could lower criminal re-offending by drug users. The report, prepared by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research and released yesterday, evaluates the court's first 17 months. Despite the high numbers ejected from the program in its early stages, the Government remains hopeful that the Drug Court will - by the time its trial ends early next year - be shown to have reduced repeat offending. This is because of refinements made to the court since its inception which now appear to be responsible for higher numbers of offenders staying on its programs. By June 30, 313 people had gone through the court and onto treatment programs. Of these, 133 (42 per cent) had been made to leave the program - mostly for reverting to illicit drug use - and 10 had successfully completed their programs. One of the most encouraging findings is that 82 per cent of all people who entered the Drug Court's treatment programs have not been convicted of offences since beginning treatment. However, the report notes that there have been problems in testing participants for illegal drug use. The court requires that urine tests be conducted twice a week in the early stages of treatment. But the report finds that fewer than half the participants had the required number of tests. It said the low numbers of people who were urine-tested might be due in part to the numbers ejected from treatment programs in their early stages. A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General, Mr Debus, said yesterday that the State Government was buying a specially equipped campervan to increase random drug testing of those on treatment programs. She said the Government always expected it would be difficult for drug offenders to stay on the court's treatment programs. But she said the numbers staying in the court's programs were higher than the retention rates for NSW's voluntary drug treatment programs. Those who are ejected from the Drug Court's treatment programs have to return to court and may be imprisoned. The leader of the Opposition, Mrs Kerry Chikarovski, said that while the Coalition had supported the setting up the court, it feared the Government was not providing sufficient funds to ensure urine testing was done. The number of people being ejected from the treatment programs was alarmingly high, she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart