Can drug courts combat Scots scourge?

AT THE annual meeting of the Scottish Police Federation last month, rank-and-file officers unanimously backed a call for a Royal Commission into Scotland’s drug plight. They were, by their own admission, struggling to win the fight against drugs.
By The Newsroom
Published 20th May 2003, 01:00 BST

In the past year, the biggest indication of the authorities’ belief that rehabilitation, not punishment, should be at the centre of the fight against narcotics in Scotland has been the introduction of specialist drug courts in Glasgow, Glenrothes, Paisley and Greenock. It seems certain the network will be expanded nationwide - but is it the right way forward, or does it indicate a worrying "Americanisation" of the system?

Each week in Scotland, drug courts are held in specially designed, non-adversarial courtrooms, offering coercive but supportive treatment rather than imprisonment. For supporters of the scheme, the concept works because it is the antithesis of the traditional court, where the relationship between the perpetrator and the judge is punitive. Drug courts are about human interaction and, according to backers, they provide something rare - a system that is interested in who you are as well as what you have done.

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