An end to short prison sentences for drug misusers convicted of minor crimes is the first hint that the new drugs strategy for Scotland, due by the summer, will contain some radical thinking. The admission by Fergus Ewing, the minister responsible for drugs policy, that prison is not the right place to deal with drug addicts because meaningful treatment requires longer than a few weeks, is a recognition that a system that returns drug-using offenders for repeat sentences of less than six months is failing to tackle the root of the problem.

Mr Ewing has already pledged, as part of the deal which gained Tory support for the SNP's Budget, that the new policy will provide more rehabilitation to move addicts away from a dependence on methadone as a heroin substitute. From his interview with The Herald it is clear that he favours a range of measures, including both abstinence and methadone prescribing, tailored to individual circumstances.

There is growing evidence in favour of beginning that individual approach with specialist drug courts. A pilot scheme in Glasgow showed drug treatment and testing orders (DTTOs) were more likely to change behaviour than a prison sentence, while only costing half as much. There is, as yet, no commitment to extending drug courts across Scotland, but a pilot scheme in Lothian and Borders where DTTOs were given to people convicted of less-serious offences should be further explored. If, as was the intention, it results in changing behaviour at a much earlier stage in drug use, the benefits will more than counter the high cost of resourcing the treatment orders.

One problem is that the scheme cannot be extended successfully without sufficient staff to ensure orders are carried out and that treatment is backed by training which leads to employment or education.

The minister is right to say that recovery includes the recovery of self-worth. That cannot be said of the thousands of people who have been "parked" on methadone for years and who have simply exchanged illegal drugs for a medically prescribed one. It should be, as originally intended, a short-term measure to stabilise chaotic lives, followed by rehabilitation programmes.

A multi-faceted strategy depends on the reality of different agencies working together. One way of underpinning that would be to channel money recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act (which the minister wants to extend) into rehabilitation measures. Mr Ewing appears to be listening to enough expert opinion to provide a coherent policy overview, but that can only succeed if it is backed by sufficient resources at community level. There is now considerable consensus that drug misuse is so deeply linked to the social ills of unemployment, poverty and ill-health that they need to be tackled along with drug treatment measures.

How that is to be achieved in the light of the removal of ring-fencing from local authority budgets, which will see services such as housing, family support workers and youth activities competing for funds, will be the first challenge of a serious and realistic drugs strategy.