There is no national standard for drug court structure, which leaves
comparison between courts difficult to judge. Some argue that until a
national standard is devised it would be almost impossible to determine
how successful a drug court is at reducing drug use within a community.
Until drug courts establish performance benchmarks, determine the best
practices for drug court programs, and develop standards and
accreditation procedures that can be used to determine whether a
particular drug court is meeting the standards set forth, criticisms
such as these will continue.

The first drug court in the U.S. took shape in Miami-Dade County,
Florida in 1989 as a response to the growing crack-cocaine problem
plaguing the city. Chief Judge Gerald Wetherington, Judge Herbert Klein,
then State Attorney Janet Reno and Public Defender Bennett Brummer
designed the court for nonviolent offenders to receive treatment. This
model of court system quickly became a popular method for dealing with
the ever increasing number of drug offenders. Between 1984 and 1999, the
number of defendants charged with a drug offense in the Federal courts
increased 247%, from 11,854 to 29,306. By 1999 there were 472 drug
courts in the nation and by 2005 that number had increased to 1262 with
another 575 drug courts in the planning stages; currently all 50 states
have working drug courts.


I have many friends in the drug court system and they are telling me how
good it is. There wasn't a drug court in 1983 when I first got clean.
One of my friends told me that when she tested positive for marijuana
that the police asked her for who her supplier was. It intrigued me to
notice the difference between federal protection and local laws.

Sure! we have that here. We also have something called campus court
which is for juvenile delinquents. Thanks to all the "daddy drama" in my
personal life I was personally sentenced to a program for "juvenile
delinquents" yet my disabled son is only 9yrs. old and far from a
"juvenile delinquent". The judge who sentenced me to this "parenting
project" for my CHILD also believed some wild allegations i was a mother
on meth, coke, heroine, oh the list was nothing but RUBBISH. I was
ORDERED to take a "hair follicle drug test" which also included peeing
in that cup. OOOOHKAY!! I went for that test and guess what?? NEGATIVE
ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE BOARD. After this test do you honestly BELIEVE I
was given any kind of APOLOGY? HA HA HA HA HA!!! The only thing i got
was a nice HEFTY BILL from yet ANOTHER child custody attorney setting me
back MONTHS FINANCIALLY. See they say in these new hair tests that can
"detect drug use for many MONTHS after using these drugs" if a lawyer
pays for the test the donor or ME is not entitled to the TEST RESULTS??
Yeah? watch me. I see it as a sleezy attorney who just put his clients
LIES and DECEPTION out there and there is NO EXCUSE for the FALSE
ALLEGATIONS and simply SLANDEROUS remarks made about me in court. Here
its OHHHKAY to commit perjury. They just ignore that fact. So much for
being a DECENT MOTHER hey? Now i hope everyone CHOKES ON THOSE RESULTS
and their karma returns swiftly. To be abused horribly by your spouse,
get up and LEAVE the abuser only to go thru YEARS of ONGOING ABUSE THRU
THE COURTS AND THESE SENILE JUDGES is simply CRIMINAL in my eyes.
Welcome to family court, drug court, what ever you want to call it. I
call it KANGAROO COURT and the INNOCENT ARE GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN
INNOCENT. That is just WRONG.

DRUG COURT or KANGAROO COURT?? I see it as a real JOKE.

Thanks for responding. I can tell you have dealt with these types of
courts before from your response. I just recently heard about the 'hair
follicle test' from the meetings I attend. My son went through a boy's
ranch type setting. He became so unruly that my ex didn't know what else
to do with him. I am hope that there does become a standard which is the
same nationally. I wasn't the 'daddy drama' because to have been that I
would have had to be around. But she did have that with a boyfriend she
met later. Coming from the background of drug use but to later get help
I have noticed the fines, penalties, and the laws have changed since the
laws has cracked down harder. Some do fall through the cracks of the
justice system and some are wrong accused. Some by association are
treated unfairly as you have shown. Some that are recovering need the
chance to work within the system but not be abused by the system. It is
newer than some court proceedings and I thought I would bring it to the
attention of the forums.

I am absoultely disgusted with the judicial system here in my town. I am
a single mom with a child "out of wedlock" which has labeled me to be
garbage. So the allegations have been vicious and my name run thru the
dirt. Now that the wild allegations of being a mom on illegal drugs were
proven WRONG just what RIGHT will be done to restore MY GOOD NAME?
NOTHING. I am not speaking of ONE custody battle but FIVE. Imagine that
at 1 to 3 thousand dollars each time? I have gone broke. Now that the
test on my hair has returned i am mad enough and disgusted enough to
turn a few CORRUPT legal eagles into the board for professional
MISCONDUCT. Being sentenced to a program for delinquent TEENAGERS and i
have an autistic child? A CHILD. That is nothing but HARRASSMENT to a
single mother like me. But they say god puts you where you need to be
and i found this to be true last week. It appears many parents have kids
in this program who have the ADD or ADHD and none have understanding
about their rights thru the school district. I have a clear
understanding and grew up with parents who fought to set these rights
into place. Now my phone is ringing off the wall.
I really am glad there is a drug court here but to so many of the
offenders its a game played. For those of us being wrongly ACCUSED of
being ON DRUGS they have hair follicle tests that prove otherwise but of
course in my case I am once again LEVELED financially thanks to KANGAROO
COURT and for what? NOTHING BUT HARRASSMENT. This time i saved the best
for last. My lawyer went in there and KICKED SOME ARSE but i still have
the bills to pay and it will take months being on a fixed income and
disabled. Something has to stop with these abusers of the judicial
system because that is the new form of abuse to the victims of domestic
violence. Its sad but very very TRUE.

You have rights and there is more than one side to a story. Some people
do play the system I have to admit. I am truly sorry you had to go
through what you did and are continuing to have to go through. I think
you should be compensated for all that it cost you and I am sure that
might take some time. You were already abused and shouldn't be abused
further from what I understanding from reading your side of the story.

Thank you rainbowstrout. I am betting this is why his attorney doesnt
want me to have a copy of that test. A great big fat LAWSUIT for all the
abuse and harrassment. Well i am no country bumpkin. I have a right to
my own medical records. These "family court" judges, clerks,
lawyers..oh! they got it all figured out. This is the BIG TICKET for the
BIG BIG MONEY around here. The one asset we all have is our
child/children. Custody and child support are seperate issues so you
have to have a lawyer for custody court or lose custody. Yeah? not gonna
happen! There are alot of unfit mothers out there but to be subjected to
the abuse i have had to endure for the last eight years is nothing but
criminal. Now i hope they are choking on that test. They deserved it. I
didnt.
Drug court can be a really good thing and we have one here but sadly so
many addicts going in and out those doors never seek or even care about
the recovery or benefits of living a clean lifestyle. They say only 1
out of 100 drug addicts find recovery and then many fail. All we can do
is hope they succeed. By sentencing me to a "parenting project" for
delinquent teens on drugs and in gangs with a child nine years old? they
are hanging a bad jacket on him due to his ADHD. My battle is far from
over but hey! i am one tough mama. bring it on.

Court period!!!
Guilty until proven innocent. That is if one can afford it! It used to
be they had to prove you guilty, but now it is you that have to prove
(very costly) that you didn't do it.

I had gotten into an abusive relationship with an alcoholic addict,
mental and physical abuser. He was very child like in his behaviors when
he didn't get what he wanted. Tantrums, lies, destructive behaviors to
property and people. Cars. windows, clothes. sentimental things from
dead family members. Things kids made when they were little.
I used to get him arrested quite frequently. He told me many times that
if got into trouble that he wasn't going down alone, meaning me.

Everything in his house belonged to me. I was trying to get it back
slowly but surely. I was living with my mom at the time and working
here. I had gone back to get more stuff by being nice to him. I had my
car packed and more inside ready to take it out. I was outside when an
undercover cop pulled into the driveway and held me there until a
warrant was issued. We then went inside, where he went straight to where
"D" kept his stuff. They were told by a "friend" of his where it was.
They told me if I were to work for them nothing would happen to me. I
LIVE IN THE CITY, NOT THERE!!! Idiots...

And somewhere during that time I had taken him to the pawn shop to pawn
his vcr and microwave. He forgot his license, and the teller told me I
could use mine and sign it to him. I never saw the paper again. This vcr
belonged to him. His mom gave it to him. But, because I kept putting him
in jail and wouldn't have anything to do with him he gave it to his mom
and she called the cops on me. A year later, I get arrested for pot,
with intent (because of his seeds being seperated) and "the friends
paraphanalia", his papers, and the vcr,(conspiracy) to pawn. A year and
a half later with counsil, I get felony charges because they run them
all together. I get 5 years unsupervised probation and it cost me 7,500
dollars. My attorney was a joke. He never even sat down with me and
discussed the situation. He just told me at the end that "Ds" hand was
in it.

I wanted to take it to trial because I did not want that kind of charge
on me. He told me that we could do that but it would cost me about 3 to
5 thousand more. Crap! Sooooo, I was due in court and he took final
payment, then told me what the judge would ask and told me what to say
exactly to him. It was bull. I did not want to say what I had to say.
But, if I hadn't they would have taken back the offer to give me the
unsupervised probation.

I have wealthy cousins that keep getting busted for meth, cooking and
selling. But, because of the parents clout with the law and higher up.
They keep getting the charges dropped. Is that fair!!?? Money determines
your chances with the law.
Kat

You know compared to some exes I think my ex was a saint. Maybe I
screwed up. Nah, no way. I still celebrate my divorce. But I have found
that I have had to fight for some rights. There is a lot of injustice in
the world and some of it is due to greed I have found.

Seems to me police have too much power. Then they dump people into the
court system which has evolved into a monetary support system for
lawyers.

It is much like drinking while driving court. The restrictions increase,
the penalties increase. The multiple ways to financially punish the
unfortunate after hours celebrant multiply. The number of people and
companies reaping the cash of the unfortunate drinker gets larger and
larger. The number of people who benefit financially from the crushing
of the casual drinker, by increasing, causes a fundamental support
structure for ever stricter laws and punishment.

Starting cost for a DWI attorney is around $5,000 dollars. I don't know
the amount for a drug attorney.

BTW, I am a non drinker so I am not saying this stuff because it affects
me personally.

I know that political correctness has the moral high ground here, as it
does with drugs and sex. Nobody can take the stage and promote freedom
to drive after a couple of beers, or the freedom to smoke pot while
indulging in a little coke, or the freedom of a sex shop to open next
door to a school.

Large political action groups spend enormous amounts on publicity to
strengthen the restrictive nature of our laws on moral issues. By doing
so they line the pockets of special groups. People buy into the message
because they, like the messengers, prefer to be on the moral high
ground. Once that position is established there is no reasoning.

There used to be a thing called entrapment. I can remember when an
unmarked police car was thought of as entrapment. Now there are sting
operations. I remember when there was a thing called privacy. Now there
is legal phone tapping. How blind does justice have to get before it is
injustice?

After Sept 11, the country panicked, Trout. All of a suddent people
clamored for 'protections' that before would have been laughed out as
infringements on our liberty and our rights.

Habeas corpus was suspended for many of our citizens, people are held
illegally in indefinite detention, massive data bases about us have been
gathered, guilt by association has become the norm of the Justive
Department, and religious intolerance has increased dramatically.

I do believe that with time and these fears will ease. At that point we
will begin to reverse the abusive legislation and legal practices that
are now current. It will take time, too much time, but I have faith in
the American people.

We will get there.

Oceans

Thank you, Oceans. I know that justice may seem blind but I have faith
that the balance will return.