JACKSON COUNTY DRUG COURT MODEL FOR SCOTLAND PROGRAM

Vicki Boyd, who helped Jackson County start one of the nation's first drug
courts, has exported the program to Scotland.

With her help, a drug court started in Glasgow last month and one is to
open next year in Fife.

Boyd is the deputy administrator of COMBAT, the Jackson County anti-drug
tax that funds drug court. In the court, drug charges are dropped if the
defendant completes a year or more of intense drug treatment, job
counseling or other requirements.

Authorities say drug courts save society money because it's cheaper to
treat users than to imprison them. What's more it helps users get off
drugs. Jackson County offenders report to a day care center and are
routinely tested for drug or alcohol use.

Bringing the local court system to Scotland took time.

Boyd's diplomatic work began in 1998, when a Scottish expert studied drug
courts in the United States and liked the Jackson County model. But in
1999, when Boyd was called to Scotland to teach drug court workshops, she
met with opposition.

"They said we seemed puritanical," she said. The Scots could not accept
that people in drug treatment weren't allowed to drink alcohol.

She said one expert even asked, "Isn't that a constitutional right?"

She found the Scots were mainly concerned about heroin addiction and
treated it by putting addicts on methadone. Alcoholics are treated by
urging less drinking rather than abstinence.

Few people are arrested for marijuana in Scotland and it was not a concern,
Boyd said.

But a new kind of drug problem changed attitudes. In May, Boyd was again
called there to teach about drug courts and met with the Scottish Minister
for Justice and his deputy.

"They were concerned because they were seeing an increase in cocaine use,"
she said. They wanted to know how to treat it and wanted drug courts, she said.

On Nov. 12, Scottish Deputy Justice Minister Iain Gray announced the
opening of the Glasgow Drug Court and promised another in Fife.

He said the courts would help addicts break their habits and the cycle of
crimes they commit to feed them.

"The overall aim is to reduce the level of drug-related crime in
communities," Gray said at the time.

By now there are hundreds of drug courts in the United States, but Boyd
said the concept has so far been slow to spread overseas. Canada uses them
and there is one in Ireland, she said.

Lately, Boyd said, European nations and Australia seem more interested.

Jackson County Prosecutor Bob Beaird said people from more countries are
attending at U.S. drug court conferences.

Drug courts will spread, he said. "It's a common sense way of handling the
problem."