Sending drug addicts back into society without follow up is ?a recipe for swinging doors ? they keeping going in and out?, Magistrate Edward King claimed yesterday.

Magistrate Ed King said yesterday in Magistrates? Court that it does not make sense putting a drug addict in jail, and putting him in a drug-treatment programme, then letting him out into the same environment with the same people.

?Make sure he has a job and a place to live and keep monitoring him so he does not slip back,? said Mr. King. Self confessed cocaine and heroin user, Jeremy Whitecross, 28, admitted to stealing an auxiliary bike worth $850 and a pine door worth $400.

Whitecross, of Middle Park Lane, Pembroke, also admitted to taking Brian Robinson?s car without permission and driving an auxiliary cycle in a dangerous manner, failing to stop for Police.

He told the court he was working on the car and drove it up the road to pick up some doors for the car. Whitecross asked Magistrate King to put him into drug court. ?I need guidance. I have been in and out of jail for seven years. I get cleaned up in jail then I come out and have no where to live.?

He added that he has many skills and that he wished someone was on his side to help him in the right direction.

?I have nobody. My father won?t even talk to me and my friends have turned their backs,? he said. Whitecross explained to the court that he needs help on the outside of the prison walls ? not just on the inside.

Mr. King remanded Whitecross in custody until BARC and social inquiry reports are completed and said he hopes Whitecross can get the help he needs.

Whitecross will appear for drug court on November 3.