It will be at least a year before the Island gets the new drug court run by the National Drug Commission, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Chief Executive Officer of the NDC Derrick Binns said last night the process had been delayed to get the final approval of the Progressive Labour Party Government and to streamline the implementation committee.

Applications for the post of coordinator, of the first drug court for people committing crimes as a result of alcohol or other drug addictions, must be submitted to the NDC by November 19. Speaking about the delay -- original projections had the court up and running by now -- Dr. Binns said: "The search for a coordinator in many ways reflects the restart of the drug court process.'' "The old implementation committee decided to suspend work until we received the endorsement of the new government,'' he added. "Since then we have streamlined the committee down from a fairly large group to five or six people.'' Dr. Binns also explained another factor in the delay was the move of the old committee's chairman to the post of chair of the NDC. A process to find a new committee chairman is nearly complete, Dr. Binns said.

"Once the committee is back together and there has been a review of the implementation process, we will have a better idea of when we will be up and running,'' he added.

The drug court coordinator will provide the technical and administrative support to the implementation committee and will liaise with the committee and Government departments, Magistrates' Court, and other related organisations.

Once the court is running, the coordinator will administer the court and "assist in other aspects'' in relation to criminal justice system clients.

Dr. Binns said the successful applicant would have to have experience within both the substance abuse side of drug addiction as well as have knowledge of how the courts run.

The person must have a Masters Degree in criminal justice, substance abuse, or other social science disciplines and three years in programme management.

Dr. Binns said communication skills both in presentations as well as in writing are necessary.

Written applications must include a letter of interest, a curriculum vitae and three professional references.

"No, the person would not necessarily just be from the abuse side or the other,'' Dr. Binns explained. "It's really the combination of the two. Having both the treatment and court sides would be better.''