The latest rehabilitation effort for first-time drug and alcohol offenders are drug classes and drug courts. While many have questioned their effectiveness, the proof is out there – drug classes work!

For those of you unfamiliar with the system, drug court is a rehabilitation program of sorts. The program is an alternative to serving jail time for drug sentences. Typically, the offenders would serve as many as 12 years, but instead they serve a year to 18 months.

One of the youngest to complete the program was Sean Riley, 20, who already had five counts on his rap sheet before drug court.

Believe it or not, his five counts are fairly low compared to other graduates. The average number of drug-related arrests for the 100 graduates is 20 prior to entering drug court, with some as high as 40.

Drug court is about making people face the consequences of their actions. Sometimes going to jail and usurping more public resources is not the right answer. Drug courts combined with drug classes and counseling is yet another attempt to look outside the box to solve one of the biggest problems facing America today.

It seeks to address the problem that got them in trouble with the criminal justice system to begin with while still requiring them to live up to their responsibilities as a citizen.

To complete drug court, the focus becomes beating drug or alcohol addiction. The program is difficult with an attrition rate between 40 and 80%.

However, the reward for completing the program is grand. Once they complete the program, whatever charge landed them in drug court is dismissed from their record.

The program is paid through client fees from the people taking the class and from drug money seized by the state in drug cases. The goal in fighting the addiction behind the arrests is that the program in the long run will equal fewer prisoners and save taxpayer dollars.

This appears to be one of the few bright spots in our “war on drugs.” We need to continue to try and fight the addiction. If you kick the addiction, you find a healthy, productive member of society.

Source: http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=732624

As a counselor for drug awareness classes I discussed the tragic demise and death of pop diva Whitney Houston with my students last weekend. Both Houston and Michael Jackson dies in the past year or so from drug overdose. Both had long histories of drug and substance abuse and both mixed all kinds of drugs.

Bankrupt

It is hard to believe that someone could fritter away $150 million. Mike Tyson, another celebrity with a long history of substance abuse too, managed to do it.

Houston’s fortune disappeared under a mound of white powder.

At her peak in the 1980s and ’90s, Whitney was the golden girl of the music industry — and one of the world’s best-selling artists. But her descent into a drug-addled hell saw the hits dry up — and her millions swallowed up by ruthless dealers.

Who Lives Like This?

Whitney famously denied using crack when she was interviewed on TV in 2002, saying: “I make too much money to smoke crack. But she would eventually admit to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills — while her powerful voice was ruined by the effects of smoking crack pipes.

Sign, Signs Everywhere are Signs!

Houston was rushed to hospital in 2003 with blood gushing from her nose, later emerging with a bizarre bandage on her face. And the full extent of her spiral into squalor and degradation emerged in 2006 with the publication of shocking photos showing the disgusting state of her bathroom after a drug binge.

Drug gear, including a crack pipe and cocaine-encrusted spoons, was strewn across the filthy room. In a brutally honest interview with TV chat queen Oprah Winfrey three years later, Whitney finally admitted for the first time that she had become addicted to crack in the 1990s after marrying fellow pop star Bobby Brown.

She even admitted she spent seven months living in her pajamas while hooked on the killer drug.

Whitney told how she and Brown would get off their heads smoking cannabis laced with crack.

Houston admitted that her drug problems began to spiral out of control after finishing the film “The Bodyguard” with Kevin Costner in.

Houston twice went into rehab before telling Oprah she was drug-free in 2010.

In 2006 she faced eviction from her £4million home after running up almost £500,000 in mortgage arrears and unpaid taxes.

Just five years earlier, Whitney had signed what was then the biggest record deal in music history — a $100 million six-album contract with Arista/BMG.

What a tragic story. Hopefully her death will serve as a beacon to others suffering from addiction. Whether it was Whitney Houston’s $150 million, a middle class businessperson blowing $250,000 or a working-class citizen losing $5,000 on drugs, addiction take their toll on all who abuse.

Source: indepthafrica.com

Members of the prison population using drugs – a good or bad idea? Really, can there be any good reason why prison inmates are using any drugs?

The youngest men booked into jail so far this year are increasingly testing positive for prescription painkillers, while fewer were using cocaine and methamphetamine, according to a new federal study.

Sobering Statistics

Just over 68 percent of all men booked into jail had tested positive for illegal drugs. Men 21 and younger showed the biggest shift, with 5.6 percent testing positive for oxycodone, a narcotic commonly found in prescription painkillers.

Meanwhile, the same age group showed a drop in cocaine and methamphetamine use. None this year were found to have used either drug. Last year, 7 percent had used cocaine and 3.5 percent had used meth. Opiates such as heroin were found in 6 percent of the inmates. Twice as many young inmates also tested positive for multiple illegal drugs this year as last year.

The increase in oxycodone consumption was somewhat disconcerting, as was heroin consumption, which remained steady. The study was done by the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The Hennepin County jail in Minnesota is one of 10 sites across the country where the program measures drug use among inmates within 48 hours of their arrest. People who have been arrested volunteered to be interviewed for the study, and their information was verified with drug testing.

Marijuana, which can stay in a person's system for up to 30 days, remains the most commonly detected drug at the time of arrest of all male inmates at 53.1 percent, followed by cocaine, opiates, methamphetamine and oxycodone, which remain in the body for three to four days.

Among those arrested for a violent crime entering the jail, more than 62 percent had drugs in their system.

With the prevalence of drugs in society today it is no surprise that courts around the country are clogged by people arrested for drugs. One of the answers is drug courts.

It’s been a long time coming, but this is a modern approach to the drug scourge that we need to take. Drug abuse isn’t something that will be wiped out in our lifetime, our children’s lifetime or probably ever, but it’s also something that can’t be ignored.

High Cost of Jailing Users

So lock up the users, right? Fine, but better get out your checkbook. It costs about $25,000 a year to house an inmate. Then you’ve got a 50/50 shot at paying that “tuition” again. And the incarceration style nets a 45 percent recidivism rate, compared with drug courts, for which studies report a recidivism rate of between 5 percent and 28 percent.

There are 2,500 drug courts across the country.

Legalization is a tempting answer for some, but it’s a shortsighted solution poisoned by the naive notion that drug abuse only affects the addict. If that were the case, a colder approach might be warranted. Addiction is a real disease, but it’s a disease brought on by poor choices and one that can be managed only by better choices.

Drug abuse destroys families. It harms communities to the point of destroying urban neighborhoods. Property crimes and violent crimes are higher among drug abusers. That wouldn’t change if drug use itself were legal.

The Stats

It’s impossible to say with certainty what the exact impact of drug use has on the criminal justice system, but here are some U.S. Department of Justice statistics based on a survey of prison inmates:

• 29 percent of state inmates reported being under the influence of drugs when committing a violent crime.
• 22 percent of state inmates reported having used drugs when committing weapons offenses.
• 36 percent of state inmates reported being under the influence while committing property crimes.
• 19 percent of state prisoners also reported that they committed their most current offense to get money for drugs.

Drug court isn’t designed for Johnny who got caught with a one-hitter while driving mom’s car. It’s aimed at felony offenders, particularly those who have shown a history of repeat criminal offenses as a result of drug abuse. These are the offenders who are straining the criminal justice system.

Offenders must admit their offense and voluntarily subject themselves to the program, which includes treatment, intensive probation, as many as three random drug screenings in a week, and more direct judicial oversight.

In exchange for their success in the program, offenders will have their charges dropped.

Hopefully, for the addict’s sake and the community’s sake, the other benefit will be an end to the cycle one participant at a time. Keep your eyes out and ears open for other stories as to the success of drug courts. Reducing recidivism is a key to fighting this war!