The Adult Drug Court is a specialised court, operating under the Drug Court Act 1998 with the aim of breaking the cycle of drug dependency, criminal activity and imprisonment. The court targets drug-dependent adult offenders who are facing a custodial sentence and offers the option of drug treatment while on parole or probation.
The system works with close cooperation between the Ministry of Health, Justice Health and the Forensic Mental Health Network, three local health districts and a range of non-government organisations which assist in providing drug treatment including residential rehabilitation.
The MERIT program is a court-based diversion program that allows arrested defendants with substance use problems to be assessed for suitability to undertake treatment and rehabilitation under bail conditions. As a result of that assessment, Magistrates can bail defendants to attend dedicated drug treatment services created through specific MERIT program funding.
As of 2017, MERIT is now available in 62 local courts across all fifteen local health districts.
To date, over 28,700 adult offenders have entered the program since 2000, and almost 18,200 have successfully completedthe program.
For more information about the program and how to make referrals, please visit Department of Justice
NSW Health funds non-government organisation (NGOs) sites to provide priority access residential rehabilitation and withdrawal management beds for MERIT clients.
See below table for further information.
MERIT priority access residential rehabilitation (RR) and withdrawal management (WM) treatment bed list (as of December 2024)
EDDI allows NSW Police to issue on-the-spot fines for low-level drug offences on two occasions. This is instead of a court attendance notice. The fine is resolved if penalty recipients pay the fine or speak to a nominated health professional.
EDDI aims to provide people with low-level drug offences support to understand the risks associated with their drug use. It also aims to increase court efficiencies by diverting people away from the courts.
NSW Health funds St Vincent's Health Network to provide the statewide EDDI telephone counselling service.
Recipients of a fine who choose to complete the health intervention with the EDDI telephone counselling service will:
After the appointment, the EDDI telephone counselling service will report completion of the health intervention to Revenue NSW to allow the fine to be resolved; however, no additional personal health information will be shared.
