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DRUG COURTS, WHICH which differ from other courts in Ireland, were set up with the aim of reducing crime through drug rehabilitation.
Under this system, you are a person most likely experiencing problematic drug use, yet you are considered an offender, not a participant or patient of the drug courts.
Offender and health are not terms we consider as being complementary to one another.
The Drug Courts recruit based on a guilty plea and prescribe to a clean urine programme, which rules out many other drug users who are harder to reach, engage and support due to the chaotic nature of their drug use.
There is another way
Imagine if we had a localised multi-agency and disciplinary team, consisting of nurses, drugs workers, counsellors and educators.
Well, in many areas we do, or we can have with the right resources and policy support.
A Drug Court has many of these, but a judge oversees it, and your involvement is court-ordered, and your addiction is still an offence.
It is just another system that will benefit a tiny percentage of drug users, and to succeed, you have to be a model patient, or in this case, offender.
Why they don’t work
Drug courts are and have always been the wrong approach to drug use. The discussion on drug courts cannot be removed entirely from the debate on drug decriminalisation; in the same way as the debate on decriminalisation is not divorced from having a health-led approach for real.
The Oireachtas Group on Drug Policy Reform (ODPR), chaired by me, recently had a session with Dr John Collins (London School of Economics) and Denise Tomasini (Open Society) on Ireland’s Drug Courts.
Meeting with Dr Collins and Denise reminded me how quiet I have been on drug courts since my election in 2016. The only reason for this is that I did not want it to get wrapped up in the conversation about decriminalisation.
Ultimately, I was worried that Justice might see a more enhanced Drug Court system as a way forward, which it isn’t.
The system needs an overhaul
Rethinking Drug Courts: International Experiences of a US Policy Export by Dr John Collins is an excellent place to start when discussing the issue of Drug Courts.
The Drug Court in Ireland was established after years of drug-related crime in Dublin. Both the health system and Justice were failing to respond to a drug crisis.
Of course, they didn’t see any other way to address this than taking an American Model and landing in Dublin in the form of Drug Courts.
There was a real struggle in the minds of governments to see addiction as a response that should purely be led by health interventions — ignoring reports at the time of the positive relation between methadone treatment and crime rates.
Today, we see that same pull between those departments persisting, as ‘tough on crime’ rhetoric often drowns out the desire of our health system to deal with drugs without the inference of Justice.
In the chapter by Dr Collins, he refers to the Fianna Fail approach at the time, which seemed to be a reluctant acceptance of methadone expansion.
Quoting from Shane Butler of Trinity College Dublin, he states that Fianna Fail’s attitude to expanding methadone treatment at the time was closer to the ideology of the US’s abstinence model.
He also suggests that Fianna Fail at the time grudgingly accepted methadone would play a part in “the detoxification and rehabilitation of addicts”. I would imagine this was due to people struggling to see the use of drugs as anything other than criminal.
What struck me most about Butler’s comments was the idea of methadone only playing a “secondary role.” Mainly because in many ways, our health system is still shadowing the justice system when it comes to use and problem use of drugs.
In my view, and I am sure many others, the creation of drug courts was an attempt to find a balance between the two, albeit a failed one.
To gain greater insight into the development of the Drug Courts and the ‘buy-in’ or lack thereof, I would suggest referring to Dr John Collins’ book.
Or indeed turn to the writing of Shane Butler to get an insight into what was described as “unresolved tensions which continued to have a negative impact on the ongoing delivery of the drug court model.”
Ireland moved slightly away from the US model by accepting that methadone and maintenance should not be excluded. Acceptance may be too strong of a word to describe their decision.
A move in name only
The move from the American way of doing things didn’t quite match up with what was unfolding in the drug courts. Mostly we already had people trained as criminal justice experts deciding how people would be treated for substance use.
You had judges prescribing treatment, prescription of abstinence underpinned by the principles of a US drug court system.
One of the most significant flaws for me is the idea that a judge can order abstinence. This idea that someone can walk away from addiction at the judgement of the court is ridiculous.
This is proven in the small number of graduating participants. It also has to be asked about who becomes a participant of drug court; they already have to have pleaded guilty.
Many young men I have worked with for years often pleaded guilty to have the option of a drug court instead of prison. There is a real gap between how many people need access to treatment in Ireland and how many end up in the drug courts.
Further questions need to be asked about the legal rights of those who do find themselves in the Irish Drug Court.
We cannot have a National Drug Strategy that claims to see addiction as a health led approach yet have funds steered away from treatment and into a drug court.
Nobody goes to court to improve their health.
The sooner we accept that being in front of a health professional and not a judge is what is required to achieve this, then we don’t have a health-led approach to drug use or misuse.
Lynn Ruane is an independent senator.
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Nice sentiment but let’s be honest here it means nothing. The question for western democracies now is how many more citizens they are willing to sacrifice before patience runs out.
Similar situation to war where the establishment talks the talk and the ordinary man and woman and child in the street walk the walk.
Can guarantee you this – when members of the establishment start to pay the price with their lives they’ll soon be singing a different tune.
@Carl Ingalls: the psychological and morale battle is more important than military and security aspects in asymmetric conflict situations.
Members of the establishment, the privileged and the powerful, are never affected by armed conflict but that is a separate issue.
Mass carpet bombings by Western forces in the Middle East, $350 billion arms deals with Saudi Arabia and repetitive interference in the Middle East on top of the Iraqi second invasion have not helped and have contributed to terrorism.
Is not Allah’s name used in mitigation, every time, or am I missing something?
@Tony Daly: you’ll blame everything except Islam.
I don’t think people get it yet. Islam is just an ideology used for conquer and to
prevail. Islam is not a religion. You can not reason with brain washed people who believe they are right beyond all reason. There is billions of Muslims if only 0.1 percent of them are radicalised that means there is Millon’s of them willing to die in the name of Allah… There is little if any solution to this mess.
@Tony Daly: one of the terrorists was from morocco. What western intervention is going on in that country?
@Carl Ingalls: absolutely. The British establishment didn’t give a toss until the financial district was targeted with warning to clear out innocent civilians. There were talks the next week.
A huge cancer in mankind is that the killing. Industry (relabeled the Defense industry by their PR departments) have politicians and decision makers as their shareholders. Perpetual war enriches these policy makers. Is it in their interests to end war?
It’s morbidly routine at this point. Islamic terror attack occurs. People vent their outrage and disgust. The liberal media swoop in, putting ou an an article saying that Muslims are showing their solidarity, bla bla bla. Next week, they’ll be back to pumping out articles about terrible that think Trump and the right are. Rinse and repeat. Everyone go back burying their heads
@Alex: clearly the hash tags aren’t working!!! Rather than be proactive and come up with a solution. The liberal grief junkies and apologists are out in force
@Alex: moan, whinge, attack liberals and repeat ad nausea.
@cholly appleseed: what’s your solution?!
@Tony Daly: You have a problem with whinging about terror? You must be a liberal
@Chucky Arlaw: can you hear that? crickets
@Alex: I’m still waiting for your plan by the way
@Dave O Keeffe: they don’t have a plan just like Brexit it’s just built up hatred vented on the journal comments Section they don’t have any solutions.
@some random guy: nobody does. I hate terrorists too
Standing defiantly pretty much means sitting around doing nothing and waiting for the next slaughter at this stage.
@IrishInfidel: really though what can do done though ? .. how is anybody meant to stop a terrorist ploughing a van into a crowd ir someone stabbing innocent peopke
@Suzie Sunshine: Could start by having a serious discussion about Islamist extremism within the Muslim community, but politicians throughout Europe seem to afraid to call a spade a spade.
Nothing can be done if we’re not allowed talk about the problem
@IrishInfidel: Just like you?
@Chris Avison: this was meant in reply to your first comment!
@IrishInfidel: foiling most of the terrorist attacks, increasingly effective intelligence, fast responses within 8 minutes elimating the terrorists, detaining the support network and getting on with life in a resilient manner is far from doing nothing.
@Tony Daly: we need to find a cure for this disease , a plaster and a pat on the back just won’t cut it anymore . Time for action now , Ireland now being called a soft back door for Jihadis .
Problem will be here for a generation or more. The solution needs to be looking at the long term. Needs to be around integration and acceptance. So much progression on race and sexuality over the last 50 years that would have been laughable at the outset. Religion needs to be next on the agenda!
And it is perfectly natural and healthy for people to share in grief.
@Tony Daly: Tony look at the damage that was done even with a record 8 minutes response. . You’d never be able to eliminate them ..
It’s all been said before, the West has to take a stand for the values we have fought through the centuries for or our way of life will down the road be under threat, interesting how Assad is quoted as saying the terrorists are almost in retreat in the East, while here in the West it’s looking like a free for all with hardly any country untouched in some form or other by terror.
@Kate Flaherty: selling out Western values out of overreactive fear and hatred in the face of a very limited ISIS terrorist campaign is not helpful.
The English show fortitude, resilience and getting on with life in the face of adversity.
@Tony Daly: overreactive fear? Get a grip. People have every right to be fearful. This from the man who lives in a dangerous fire hazard of an apt but choses not to inform the relevant authorities but give out instead. You are a plonker mate
@Tony Daly: I’m hardly encouraging the “selling out of western values” as you put it, radicals seek to destroy, freedom, democracy, choice, all these things we have are now coming under threat, their holy men are telling them to go to Europe, have bigger families, buy bigger cars, live in bigger houses, western women are looked on with disdain by these fundamentalists, recent tests done in Sweden using dental examinations, X-ray and by checking bone density proved that 70% of those claiming to be minors are not in fact minors, the incidents of rape and sexual assault attacks are also on the rise, kebab shops and other shops in this country are being used for money laundering to fund ISIS, I could go on but I have a feeling it wouldn’t make much of an impact on you Tony……
@cholly appleseed: certainly not. You are losing control. Sad. You are a victim of ISIS and playing the tune of ISIS.
@Tony Daly: you are apologies and refusing point blank to blame the Islamic ideology. It’s grand having no fear when you sit I’m all day long and comment on every article 50 times never venturing out. No wonder your biggest complaint and worry is the tinderbox you live in
@Tony Daly: we don’t need to run around thinking the sky is falling , but we can tighten border controls and immigration , why should we not stop people coming into the country , if we don’t know who they are . The Irish government owes a duty of care to its people first and foremost .
@Ken Hayden: that absolutely should be happening. If it’s not then shame on them. After that though what next? Most attackers have been in the country they attack for years. Some even born there. How do we weed out the extremists in a way that doesn’t feed into the rhetoric of ISIS and create more?
@Dave O Keeffe: To be honest, I don’t really care if the action taken creates more of them , once it eradicates the disease . If we don’t allow more in , then we’ll solve the problem .
Like I said , the majority of Muslim’s here are not radicalised , but the islamic ideology needs to be tackled . We cannot , I repeat cannot allow the situation to develop like it has in other countries .
England is now facing an uphill struggle because it buried it’s head in the sand .
@Ken Hayden: When have the Irish Government or any Irish Government for that matter given a stuff about its people. I certainly won’t hold my breath !!
@Ken Hayden: are you reading these before posting? You don’t care if your plan creates more terrorists and kills more innocent people once eventually they run out of people willing to die.
The law has got to be changed so that expressing sympathy for terrorism or ISIS is enough to put you away for a long time. They have tens of thousands of these guys under surveillance without enough evidence to actually do anything. They have to make it easier. Build detention centres if necessary. As for the lads who actually travel to Syria, should be immediate arrest upon return.
@Fred Jensen: so please list or identify those who are expressing sympathy for terrorism. I know of no one doing that.
Detention is just another name for internment without trial. Preventative justice does not work. It will alienate modern Muslims.
@Tony Daly:
They can have a trial where they are accused of expressing sympathy for radical Islam, and if convicted they are put away.
@Fred Jensen: so who is expressing sympathy for radical Islam, where, when, on what occasion ? Be specific.
Effective intelligence is far more important, of course. Prevention is the right approach.
@Tony Daly: f..k u and ur so called modern muslims …where are they …and what does modern muslims mean ?
@Rachel Alan Stafford: they’re the over 1 billion Muslims that have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism.
Why is there not mass protests against Islamic terror and for the government to act? People will have rally’s and mass protests about Trump becoming president but not when there is something to really protest about like radical Islam . It’s a joke .
@Mumpsimus: there is no point in divisiveness and polarisation.
Londoners and Mancunians showed calm dignity and quiet composure.
What else are they meant to do though ??
Standing in defiance after the event isn’t a whole lot of use tbh. A lot of blood shed and lives lost prior to that point.
London stands not just in defiance but in effective opposition to terrorism by eliminating the 3 terrorists within 8 minutes.
Contain, control and eliminate the terrorists.
Londoners are strong, resilient, calm and determined.
We should not play to the agenda of ISIS by magnifying the risk.
@Tony Daly: kumbaya Tony
@KingBen: there is a religious and dogmatic quality to that mindless chant.
32 men, women and children, mostly members of the same few famillies killed in a U.S airstrike on a school yesterday in Syria. Death toll expected to rise much higher. 44 killed in an airstrike the day before. This is not an excuse for these crazies in london or wherever but it certainly doesnt help. Of course the western media ignore it.
@Seamus Og:
So how did you get to hear about it? Any links?
It’s summer not spring
@Teegan Maguire: Hi Teegan. Yep it’s Summer but you wouldn’t think it would you? (K.Mc)
A documentary last year profiled some of these guys. https://youtu.be/VNGRpKwIAwE
rip to those poor folks just going about their lives, until those disgusting savages put an end to that in the name of mohamad whatever they call him lol
Very sad
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