A local agency fighting drug and alcohol abuse is looking into installing a drug court on the Island.

National Drugs Commission (NDC) chairman Mansfield Brock made the announcement to Hamilton Lions yesterday during their weekly luncheon at its new venue -- Pier Six.

And to investigate the US system further, Mr. Brock told listeners that the NDC had made the necessary arrangements to send a Magistrate -- as yet unnamed, lawyer Marc Telemaque and Attorney General Elliott Mottley to a conference in Atlanta.

Mr. Brock explained that he had come across the idea during trips to the US where about 37 states used drug courts and there was a wealth of information available on the subject.

Designed with addicts and users in mind, the courts attempted to use their authority to change the drug abusing behaviour of defendants by forcing them into treatment which judges continued to monitor.

Mr. Brock stressed that addicts never went into treatment voluntarily, something had to force them, be it pain or their family.

Sometimes, he added, it was the employer who pushed an addict into treatment.

This was one reason why the NDC had developed guidelines for employers -- called Drugs Don't Work Here -- that several hotels had already begun to use.

Employers were being encouraged to sit down with their employees and develop written substance abuse policies for their businesses using the guidelines, said Mr. Brock.

But addicts suffered from a disease and therefore should not be treated punitively -- that should be saved for dealers and traffickers, he continued.

Addicts needed to be treated therapeutically which was why drug court would offer them treatment, try to push them into it and make them stay there, he said.

He noted that violent offenders or drug pushers would not be sent to drug court as they deserved to be treated as criminals.

But instead of fining people for simple possession of a controlled drug and releasing them back on the street, Magistrates would offer the choice of either going to drug court or being sentenced heavily and receiving a criminal record.

The good thing was that treatment worked for addicts provided they stayed in it and maintained the post-treatment programme.

He said the problem occurred as a result of people going into primary treatment then stopping before they were well.

So offenders in treatment would continue to return to drug court after the primary treatment where their after care -- which would include random drug testing -- would be monitored.

If the addict suffered a relapse then the judge was also in the position to either pass a heavy sentence, if the judge believed they were taking advantage of the new system, or give them another chance.

But if they got off the substance they were abusing, and stayed off it then they should not be looked upon as criminals.

There were over 5,000 people on the stop list at the Airport for drug related offences, he continued, and one objective of drug courts was to reduce this number while increasing the number of people who stopped taking drugs.

DRUGS DGS