Greens leader Shane Rattenbury has taken a keen interest in bringing a specialised drug court to the ACT, similar to those operating in most other states, and overseas.

The court aims to stop reoffending by sending certain categories of drug-dependent defendants to intensive, court-monitored rehabilitation, instead of jail.

It aims to address the underlying cause of an individual's offending, while subjecting them to a strict regime of community-based supervision.

Drugs courts have proved successful in other states. The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research found in 2008 those who completed the NSW drug court program were 37 per cent less likely to be reconvicted of any offence.

They were 65 per cent less likely to be reconvicted of an offence against the person, 35 per cent less likely to be reconvicted of a property offence, and 58 per cent less likely to be reconvicted of a drug offence.

Diverting offenders away from prison also reduces the exorbitant costs of housing inmates.

The Labor-Greens power sharing deal included a promise to establish a drug and alcohol court, and associated support programs, as part of its aim to reduce recidivism by 25 per cent by 2025. The deal also pledged to "continue existing funding of justice reinvestment programs and assess the need for any additional funding as part of the budget process".

The Greens plan for the drug court is to be modelled on a successful system in Auckland, which Mr Rattenbury visited earlier this year.

The drug and alcohol sector support the drug court, but say it is crucial that rehabilitation services are properly resourced for it to be effective.

Mr Rattenbury agreed on Wednesday that a surge in funding would likely be required, until the benefits of the drug court began to reduce demand for rehabilitation services in the long-term. He said the drug court had saved millions of dollars in Auckland, which could then be reinvested.

"If we start to put these systems in place, and we properly intervene and help people get their lives back on track, break their dependence, then ultimately we will reduce the pressure on those services," he said.

"So in a sense there's probably a need for a surge in funding over a couple of year period, until the success of something like this flows through the system."

Most drug and alcohol rehabilitation services are already stretched to the limit.

Directions ACT, for example, has an average wait time of five to six weeks for its community-based counselling program alone.

Residential rehabilitation beds can take between three to four months to free up, and the organisation stops accepting applications once the wait time stretches out to six months.

Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug Association ACT executive officer Carrie Fowlie said the system was already struggling to meet demand - which had risen 37 per cent in the last four years - even without the added workload that a drug court would bring.

"[The drug court] will require new resources. It will require the drug and alcohol sector and the criminal justice system to find new and improved ways of working together. It will require both systems to move quickly and effectively together," she said.

"We can do that, but we need to be brought to the table from day one in terms of the design of the program."

Mr Rattenbury agreed that the sector needed to be closely involved at an early stage. He said work would begin on the drug court almost immediately, but was reluctant to give a timeline.

He said the government was conscious that better integration between justice and health systems was needed, and said that process was already being driven by a rearrangement of portfolios.

Directions ACT chief executive officer Fiona Trevelyan said drug courts relied on a support sector that was highly responsive and able to offer the full gamut of services to cater for individual needs.

"That's the key thing with the drug court… is being able to wrap services around people so there's not such a long waiting list," she said.

"It's disheartening and people lose motivation and we know that. So there is pressure on services to be able to be responsive and to meet those needs as quickly as they can."