DRUG OFFENDERS TO BE DEALT WITH AT SPECIAL COURT

Magistrates are soon to begin training for an experimental court dedicated
to dealing with drug offenders.

They will spend two days looking in depth and discussing with experts the
impact of hard drugs on society and the lives of people who take them and
deal in them.

The JPs, all very experienced, will sit at Wakefield and Pontefract
magistrates' courts in West Yorkshire, where they will decide if offenders
go on rehabilitation programmes or are sentenced in another way.

Constance Gilbey, 68, chair-woman of Wakefield magistrates, who is one of a
pool of 24 volunteer JPs, said the court should not be seen as an easy
option for offenders.

"Those who go on the treatment programme will follow a very strict regime
which will restrict their freedom," said Miss Gilbey. "The idea is to help
offenders to break the drugs habit and give them new lives ... what's useful
to the offender will be useful to society."

Miss Gilbey, a JP for 38 years, said magistrates will have to be convinced
that the offenders who come to their court are committed to the treatment
programme before they are allowed on to it.

The court, which begins work in June, is part of "Step" - substance misuse
and enforcement programme - initiated by Wakefield Health Authority, drugs
agencies in the area and the UK anti-drugs co-ordinator, Keith Hellawell,
when he was chief constable of West Yorkshire, after they saw a similar
scheme operating in Miami.

Police will refer offenders arrested for drug-related crimes to a Step
worker who will assess them in the cells before they are bailed or remanded
to the next available drugs court, which will be held weekly in Wakefield
and eventually Pontefract.

Their treatment taken while on probation will involve detoxification, using
drug substitutes, and therapy to change attitudes and behaviour. Regular
urine tests will be made to check that no drugs are being taken.

An offender will go back to court regularly so magistrates can monitor their
progress. If they do well they will graduate and the probation order
terminated or left to expire.