About us

What is the Drug Court of NSW?

The Drug Court of NSW is a specialist court that sits in four locations, Parramatta, Toronto, Sydney and Dubbo in New South Wales, Australia. It takes referrals from the Local and District Courts of offenders who are dependent on drugs and who are considered to be eligible for a Drug Court program.

Download a copy of the Drug Court Facts Sheet (PDF, 123.3 KB) (PDF 124KB) for more information.

Why a specialist drug court?

The Drug Court of NSW attempts to address underlying drug dependency which has resulted in criminal offending.

Drug courts have emerged in a number of countries as a result of growing disenchantment with the ability of traditional criminal justice approaches to provide long term solutions to the cycle of drug use and crime - read more about the history of the Drug Court of NSW.

Where is the Drug Court?

There are four current locations of the court, in Parramatta, Toronto, Sydney CBD and Dubbo. Visit our Contacts page for more details.

How does the Drug Court operate?

The Drug Court of NSW operates according to its governing legislation, the Drug Court Act 1998 and the Drug Court Regulation 2020 and according to:

• past decisions
• policies. 

Read more about the Drug Court procedures in Our program.

Jurisdiction

The Drug Court has Local Court and District Court jurisdiction. Its operations are governed by the Drug Court Act 1998 and Drug Court Regulation 2020, and the Court's past decisions and policies.              

The Drug Court Act 1998 (No 150 Part 3 Division 2 Section 24 'Jurisdiction of Drug Court') states the Drug Court has the following jurisdiction:

• the criminal jurisdiction of the District Court
• the criminal jurisdiction of the Local Court
• such other jurisdiction as is vested in the Drug Court by this or any other Act.