Mr. Justin Kelly:

I may ask Mr. Boland to come in. There are a number of criteria for someone to be accepted in the adult caution scheme. If you do not meet the criteria, you cannot be adult cautioned. That set of offences is not confined to drugs. An easy example to understand is assault. For section 2 assault, you will be given the benefit of adult caution but if you deny it and say, "I did not assault Justin Kelly", you cannot be in the adult caution scheme. One of the criteria is that you have to admit it. There are four criteria. Another is there has to be a prima facie case, so the case has to be good enough to go to court. The offender must admit it, he or she must understand the significance of it and there has to be informed consent. Some people do not want to be part of the adult caution scheme, but want to go through the court process so they will not admit it. That is one cohort. The idea of an adult caution, not just in the area of drugs but in all areas, is to divert people away from the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, there are people who have hundreds of previous convictions. The adult caution system will not do much for them, realistically. Unfortunately, some people have been in the criminal justice system for decades. There are myriad reasons people would not go into the adult caution system, on a high level, but we support it.

We have had discussions about the extension of the adult caution scheme to other drugs.