NSW PLANS NEW COURT FOR YOUTH DRUG CASES

Young drug addicts who plead guilty to non-violent crime would
be sentenced by a youth drugs court based in western Sydney, the NSW
Government said yesterday.

Premier Bob Carr unveiled the Government's initial blueprint for
dealing with young drug addicts yesterday when he announced the court
would sentence offenders to compulsory rehabilitation, rather than
imprisonment.

The court will be convened for a trial period by July next year at a
cost of $8.5 million, which includes provisions to establish a new
12-bed detoxification centre for juvenile offenders.

Mr Carr said the Government's response to the recent Drug Summit
included both incentives and deterrents to combat drug use among young
people.

But under the plan, offenders who failed to complete court-ordered
rehabilitation would be forced to serve the terms of a suspended sentence.

The youth drug court would be tested in western Sydney, although an
exact location had not yet been determined.

"It will face young non-violent offenders with a choice: you either
get on to rehabilitation, or you go to jail," he said. "They will
receive a jail sentence, but it will be suspended while they go into
rehabilitation."

The court would sentence young offenders who had pleaded guilty to
non-violent drug-related crimes.

"The Government is prepared to help addicts who want to help
themselves.

"We have to require young people to take responsibility for their own
behaviour.

"There is a stick, but there is also a carrot," he
said.

Several more initiatives would be announced over the next few
days.

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Chris Hartcher said he had
supported the original proposal for a youth drugs court during the
Drug Summit.

However, it was essential the court was adequately resourced or "it
would be swamped like the [adult] drug court at Parramatta", he said.

Mr Carr also announced the introduction of random urine analysis and
sniffer dogs in juvenile detention centres, extra funding for drug and
alcohol counselling and detoxification facilities, and mandatory
conferences between parents and school principals if a child was
suspended because of drugs.

More than 70 per cent of all inmates in juvenile detention are
imprisoned as a result of drug-related crime.