Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie has an­nounced the open­ing of the first drug treat­ment court in the coun­try at the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the train­ing work­shop that takes place this week in Port-of-Spain. This work­shop, Im­ple­ment­ing Drug Treat­ment Courts as an al­ter­na­tive to In­car­cer­a­tion for Drug De­pen­dent Of­fend­ers, is be­ing car­ried out un­der the lead­er­ship of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty (through the Na­tion­al Drug Coun­cil), the Min­istry of Jus­tice and the Ju­di­cia­ry of Trinidad and To­ba­go. It is be­ing co­or­di­nat­ed by the In­ter-Amer­i­can Drug Abuse Con­trol Com­mis­sion (CI­CAD), of the Sec­re­tari­at for Mul­ti­di­men­sion­al Se­cu­ri­ty of the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS), with part fund­ing from the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da.

Ac­cord­ing to John Sandy, Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Trinidad and To­ba­go needs to find dif­fer­ent and in­no­v­a­tive al­ter­na­tives to im­prove cit­i­zen se­cu­ri­ty. The open­ing cer­e­mo­ny in­clud­ed re­marks by Karen Mc­Don­ald, the High Com­mis­sion­er of Cana­da and Jus­tice Kofi Barnes, On­tario Court Judge and Chair­man of the Cana­di­an As­so­ci­a­tion of Drug Treat­ment Courts. Riyad In­sanal­ly, the OAS Coun­try Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, gave the as­sur­ance that this ini­tia­tive would re­ceive the full sup­port of the OAS through its Drug Treat­ment Court Pro­gramme for the Amer­i­c­as.

More than 70 judges, pros­e­cu­tors, treat­ment providers, de­fence coun­sel, pro­ba­tion and po­lice of­fi­cers, from Trinidad and To­ba­go and The Ba­hamas at­tend­ed the work­shop. The train­ing was pro­vid­ed by a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary team from Cana­da led by Jus­tice Barnes, in co­op­er­a­tion with train­ers from Ja­maica (judges from Mon­tego Bay and Kingston), and the US (Amer­i­can Uni­ver­si­ty and the NAD­CP), where drug treat­ment courts have been al­ready im­ple­ment­ed. Chief Jus­tice Za­ila Mc­Calla of Ja­maica, who al­so at­tend­ed the work­shop, joined ef­forts with Chief Jus­tice Archie to pro­mote a com­pre­hen­sive Caribbean ap­proach to drug treat­ment courts in co­op­er­a­tion with CI­CAD.

As a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary prac­tice, mar­ry­ing pre­ven­tion poli­cies, treat­ment and jus­tice, drug treat­ment courts has proven an ef­fec­tive in­ter­ven­tion for drug de­pen­dent of­fend­ers, as an al­ter­na­tive to in­car­cer­a­tion. Drug treat­ment courts have proven in oth­er coun­tries in the hemi­sphere to re­duce crime and with it, the re­cidi­vism rate, the prison pop­u­la­tion and drug de­pen­den­cy.

For more in­for­ma­tion about this ini­tia­tive, con­tact alom­ba@oas.org