Drug Court is a superior court established under the Act number 17/2011 (Drug Act) to hear and dispose of criminal cases of drug dependent persons, and subject such persons to mandatory treatment and rehabilitation programs in order to reduce or eliminate their dependency on drugs and thus increasing their chances of reintegration into the community as responsible citizens .
Mainly four categories of offenders are eligible to drug court treatment programs. Those categories are, drug users, peddlers, drug dependent people whose drug dependency contributed to the commission of a criminal offence, (such as theft and robbery), people who are serving a criminal offence or multiple criminal offences. The above categories of people will be eligible if they have the qualifications stipulated for each category in section 35 of Drug Act.
The specialty of drug court is that, all eligible cases will proceed if the person pleaded guilty to the offence, if the person is willing to be subjected to an indicative assessment, if the person has agreed to participate and complete a prescribed treatment program and to obey other conditions set by the court. Moreover in all prescribed treatment programs the offender will be called to appear before the court for status hearings to check on how he corporate.
All proceedings in the Drug Court are to be heard and disposed of before a bench consisting of a single judge. Currently drug Court consist of 5 (five) judges.
