Stephen Whitehead
Last week’s Home Office report on drug laws across different countries has caused controversy by providing yet more evidence that the long term solutions to drugs misuse lie in treatment, not punishment.
The report compared drug laws across eleven different countries and found that there was no evidence that harsher punishments led to reduced drug use. In fact, it found that countries such as Portugal which had focussed on treatment for drug users had significantly improved health outcomes.
Treatment for problematic drug users is already available to UK courts under the Drug Rehabilitation Requirement, a court order which demands that offenders attend treatment or face criminal penalties. However, judges and magistrates generally lack training around addiction which can make it difficult for them to know when treatment is required. Ensuring that users are actually engaging with treatment can also be a slow and complex process.
One solution to this problem is to set up specialist courts for dealing with drug users. These drug courts – which focus on people committing crime to pay for drugs, rather than people accused of possession – try to ensure that drug users get the treatment they need. Drug courts began in the US, but have been exported to several other countries including Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Norway and the UK. The details vary, but they all share some key features:
- dedicated judges or magistrates with a specialist understanding of drug use and addiction
- dedicated hearings that are specifically for drug users, attended by charities and/or treatment workers
- closer links between courts and treatment teams
- ongoing supervision of offenders by the court to encourage and monitor engagement with treatment.
Evidence from the US suggests that drug courts can reduce crime. Across 30 evaluations, drug courts were shown to reduce reoffending by 13%. In the UK, we’ve experimented with drug courts in a number of places. West London Drug Court has explored how this template can be adopted within a mainstream magistrates’ court budget, while Glasgow Drug Court is supported by a dedicated treatment team. However, due to a lack of research, so far there’s very little hard evidence about how effective drug courts have been in the UK.
Frustratingly, we’re now seeing promising drug courts like West London in danger of being disbanded as officials mistake this lack of evidence for a lack of impact. The evidence from overseas suggests that our drug court pilots should be properly evaluated to determine whether they are effective – not closed for lack of funding. If, as the evidence suggests, treatment is the key to successful drug policy, then we must find ways to ensure that drug users in the criminal justice system get access to the treatment they need.