Practice Note: The Irish Drug Treatment Court

Abstract

Although international countries seek to adopt the American drug court model, each country brings its own culture, philosophy of treatment, and drug use context that affects how each court is implemented. This article reviews the history and context of the Irish Drug Treatment Court. Differences from the American model are considered, such as an emphasis on harm reduction, provision of services predominantly to heroin users, the use of an adult education program as the main intervention, and a varying view of therapeutic jurisprudence. Process and outcome evaluation findings are presented, along with a final discussion related to drug court practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Drug court
• Ireland
• harm reduction
• heroin