Pete scrubbing up well

Notwithstanding the press claims of oversampling the delights of Thailand, and the supposedly drug-related fight which made Kate send him home, the official overseers of Pete Doherty are pleased with his progress:

The judge told Mr Doherty that his doctor had referred to the "great effort" he was making to beat his addiction.

"But it's a long process and there is another nine months to go," she said.

"This is more optimistic but we cannot take the pressure off. It takes day-to-day effort."

His defence counsel suggested that Doherty might be, like, some sort of super-addiction-kicker:

"Most people would have failed by now," he told the judge.

Really? If that's true, there's surely a huge question hanging over if this is the correct approach for people who've committed the same crimes as Doherty. If "most" will fail by the halfway point of their rehabilitation, is it wise to set up vulnerable people with what is a health problem - albeit an antisocial one - to fail? It seems a strange way to go about things, like coming up with a sentence for a murderer and the judge going "you know, chances are you'll murder someone else at the end of it, but whatchagonnado, eh?"

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