It is a specialist court that deals with criminal offences in which the defendant has an addiction to illicit drugs.

It commenced operations in Sydney as a pilot program with the goal of establishing the question of whether a Drug Court is more effective and cost-effective in reducing crime among drug-dependent criminal offenders than the conventional sanctions.

Treatment options offered include abstinence and pharmacotherapy programs, and may be provided in either a community or residential rehabilitation environment.

There are four fundamental aspects that are common to each Drug Court program plan:- To be eligible for the Drug Court a person must:- After detoxification and assessment, the offender appears before the Drug Court where he or she enters a guilty plea, receives a sentence that is suspended, and signs an undertaking to abide by his or her program conditions.

This process marks the commencement of the offender's Drug Court program.

In this phase, testing for drug use is conducted twice weekly and report-back court appearances occur fortnightly.

Rewards may be simply a round of applause, or perhaps permission to work even during Phase One.

Community-based sanctions, such as increased supervision or community work, are also available to the Court.