Jason Payne evaluates the implementation, operation and outcomes of the pilot program for 26 months from its inception in 2002. The program operates within the Cairns and Townsville magistrates' courts, and aims to target and divert into treatment, rather than prison, high-volume property or drug offenders whose offending is attributable to their drug dependency. The Queensland government has recently announced that the drug courts will become a permanent feature of the court system.