Drug Courts
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61 US: Drug Abuse Rises As 2016 IssueMon, 21 Dec 2015
Source:Los Angeles Times (CA) Author:Mehta, Seema Area:United States Lines:166 Added:12/22/2015

As Campaigns Turn to New Hampshire, Its Addiction Epidemic Draws the Focus of Presidential Hopefuls.

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Zach Brewster had a long history of addiction and was dealing drugs after flunking out of college.

One night he injected a cocktail of cocaine and heroin and stopped breathing. He was taken by ambulance to the emergency room of the suburban hospital that employed his parents, where they were told their son might not survive the night.

When he pulled through, his parents thought the scare might make him serious about recovery.

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62 US CO: OPED: Stats Show Current Drug Policy A FailureSat, 19 Dec 2015
Source:Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO) Author:Walters, John P. Area:Colorado Lines:137 Added:12/20/2015

President Barack Obama's National Drug Control Strategy in 2010 first proclaimed the major policy goals of the administration's approach to the drug problem and the goals were to be met by 2015. Not only have they not been met, in critical instances, the policies have been going in the wrong direction, rapidly.

We learned last week that, in the midst of the opiate overdose crisis, heroin overdose deaths rose an additional 28 percent between 2013 and 2014. That's on top of the 340 percent rise in heroin deaths since 2007, such that beyond the 8,217 deaths of 2013, we now have another 10,574. That is, we now see a 440 percent increase from the Bush years.

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63 US MA: Editorial: Treatment Instead Of Jail For AddictsSat, 19 Dec 2015
Source:Boston Globe (MA)          Area:Massachusetts Lines:69 Added:12/19/2015

This fall,a new kind of court session came to order in Massachusetts, one that holds enormous promise for a region coping with an exploding opioid epidemic by offering integrated treatment for low-level drug defendants rather than costly long-term incarceration.

The program, called RISE - for Repair, Invest, Succeed, Emerge - is part of a broader shift nationally away from rigid sentencing guidelines to a more humane view: dealing with the complex social causes that can lead to drug abuse and drug-related crime in an effort to break the addiction cycle and keep people from re-offending.

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64 US NM: Column: Difficult Choices When a Judge Faces AddictedFri, 20 Nov 2015
Source:Albuquerque Journal (NM) Author:Ramczyk, Daniel E. Area:New Mexico Lines:121 Added:11/22/2015

If Substance Abuse Is Not Treated, the Criminal Behavior Will Continue

What is my responsibility as a judge when a criminal defendant is suffering from alcohol or drug addiction?

In April 2003, I swore to uphold the United States Constitution, and to enforce the constitution and laws of New Mexico. How and when does court-ordered treatment for addiction fit into my judicial duties?

Addiction and crime are related. The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence reports that, every day, 36 people die and approximately 700 are injured in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver.

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65US AK: OPED: Fixing Alaska's Heroin Problem Could Start byThu, 19 Nov 2015
Source:Alaska Dispatch News (AK) Author:Dingman, Mike Area:Alaska Lines:Excerpt Added:11/20/2015

In a commentary printed Nov. 11, I wrote about the broken structure our addicts face when they enter the criminal justice system. But the question still remained, "How do we fix it?"

While the United States is still warehousing drug addicts in prisons and watching them come in and out of what has become known as the "revolving door," many countries are starting to look to decriminalization to solve this problem.

Related: Heroin story underscores need for Alaska to treat addicts, not imprison them Mat-Su grapples with lack of detox options as heroin use rises

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66US CA: Column: Heroes In Nation's Worst Drug EpidemicSun, 15 Nov 2015
Source:Orange County Register, The (CA) Author:Whiting, David Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:11/16/2015

Denise Cullen's journey from mother, to burying her only child before his 28th birthday, to activist is one that too many parents have had to take during the worst drug epidemic in this nation's history.

Most parents who lose a child collapse under the weight of trying to stem the tide of prescription opioids. But even after five years of battling what the Centers for Disease Control calls an ever-more deadly killer, Cullen and several other mothers and fathers in Orange County haven't given up - and now they are making dents in the epidemic.

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67 US NM: OPED: Helping Nonviolent Drug Offenders Better ThanSun, 08 Nov 2015
Source:New Mexican, The (Santa Fe, NM)          Area:New Mexico Lines:47 Added:11/08/2015

As reported by The Washington Post and reprinted in The New Mexican ("Justice Department about to free 6,000 prisoners," Oct. 6), the Justice Department is prepared to release 6,000 prisoners. That started on Oct. 30 and is the largest one-time release by the feds ever. The U.S. Sentencing Commission retroactively reduced the sentence for drug offenses, which precipitated this response.

Everyone from Obama, the American Civil Liberties Union to Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina are in support of further reducing the mandatory-minimum sentences that were set for drug offenses during the sweeping "war on drugs" campaign of the 1980s and 1990s.

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68 US MA: OPED: In Fight Against Opioid Crisis, Civil CommitmentWed, 04 Nov 2015
Source:Boston Globe (MA) Author:Satel, Sally Area:Massachusetts Lines:137 Added:11/06/2015

Spurred by an opiate problem that kills three people a day in Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker has proposed controversial legislation to give hospitals power to hold addicts against their will if they pose a grave danger to themselves.

Intruding on personal freedom is serious business. But in extreme situations it's necessary.

I remember the frantic parents of my 23-year-old patient, Susan. They tried to get her committed for "grave disability" due to addiction. Susan had dropped out of college three years earlier, chose to live on the streets of New Haven or crash on her friends' filthy couches. Two months before her parents sought forced treatment, their daughter had overdosed twice, suffered a near-rape, and was hospitalized for abscesses from infected injection sites.

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69 US CA: PUB LTE: A Kinder, Gentler War On Drugs?Sun, 01 Nov 2015
Source:Los Angeles Times (CA) Author:Sharpe, Robert Area:California Lines:34 Added:11/01/2015

Re "Drug courts, now," Opinion, Oct. 29

Drug courts are based on the premise that the criminal justice system has a role in health interventions. This has far-reaching implications.

Drug courts seek to divert nonviolent drug offenders into treatment. All illicit drug use is considered abuse. If the drug court concept were applied to alcohol, people who drink an occasional glass of red wine with dinner could be forced into unwanted substance-abuse treatment.

Treatment is indeed cheaper than incarceration for taxpayers. It's cheaper still for government to mind its own business and leave adults who aren't harming others alone.

There is an effort underway to create a kinder, gentler drug war by marrying the for-profit prison industry to a growing for-profit treatment industry. This is an ominous development.

Robert Sharpe Washington The writer is a policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug Policy.

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70 US CA: OPED: Drug Courts, NowThu, 29 Oct 2015
Source:Los Angeles Times (CA) Author:Manley, Stephen V. Area:California Lines:87 Added:10/29/2015

Enrollment in drug courts is declining. Perhaps treatment should be a requirement for addicts, rather than an option.

In the year since California voters approved Proposition 47, there has been a flurry of speculation about the future of drug courts in this state. Proposition 47 reduced the majority of drug and property offenses in California from felonies to misdemeanors, meaning that many offenders no longer face the possibility of state prison. Critics have suggested that removing the heavy stick of incarceration necessarily makes drug courts less effective.

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71 US NM: City, Officer Deny Fault In Drug Sting ShootingWed, 28 Oct 2015
Source:Albuquerque Journal (NM) Author:Boetel, Ryan Area:New Mexico Lines:98 Added:10/28/2015

Lieutenant Who Shot Undercover Officer Says He Was at Briefing

The city of Albuquerque and the police lieutenant who shot and seriously injured a fellow undercover officer in a drug sting gone awry early this year have denied in court filings that the lieutenant missed a briefing prior to the operation.

That contradicts Albuquerque police reports on the shooting and officer Jacob Grant's lawsuit, which both said Lt. Grag Brachle wasn't present at the meeting to discuss details such as where the police officers would be sitting when they purchased drugs from the suspects.

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72 US NM: Column: A Cloud Of Contradictions Surrounds PotMon, 19 Oct 2015
Source:Albuquerque Journal (NM) Author:Jacobsen, Joel Area:New Mexico Lines:124 Added:10/19/2015

In N.M. and a number of other states, cannabis manages to be legal, illegal all at the same time

When I was growing up in Albuquerque in the 1970s, every teen knew two things about marijuana: it was illegal, and it was everywhere. That should have been a contradiction, but wasn't. Pot was easier for kids to acquire than beer. Cheaper, too.

Forty years later, weed remains ubiquitous. It provides one of the characteristic fragrances of Albuquerque's summer streets. But it's no longer entirely accurate to say it's illegal. Like nothing else in our society, cannabis manages to be legal and illegal at the same time.

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73 US MA: Editorial: Lowering The Cost Of Mass IncarcerationWed, 14 Oct 2015
Source:Boston Globe (MA)          Area:Massachusetts Lines:67 Added:10/14/2015

State governments across the country are finally waking up to the enormous financial and human cost of mass incarceration. In recent years, at least 27 states have rolled back mandatory-minimum laws and other "tough-on-crime" legislation that has turned the United States into the world's biggest jailer. The reason? At a cost that typically runs more than $55,000 a year per inmate, even conservative states are balking at the expense of swollen prison populations.

That's one reason the "justice reinvestment" movement is gaining steam. Across the country, activists and lawmakers are pushing for reforms aimed at sending fewer people to prison, redirecting money to address social problems at their source.

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74 US CA: In California, Leniency's Unintended EffectsSun, 11 Oct 2015
Source:Washington Post (DC) Author:Saslow, Eli Area:California Lines:356 Added:10/11/2015

A New Law to Reduce Prison Crowding Keeps One Addict Out of Jail but Not Out of Trouble

They gathered outside the courthouse in November for a celebration on Election Day, dozens of people wearing fake handcuffs and carrying handwritten signs. "End mass incarceration!" read one. "Justice not jail" read another. California voters had just approved a historic measure that would reduce punishments for more than 1 million nonviolent offenders, most of whom had been arrested on drug charges. "No more drug war," people chanted that night, as the vote became official.

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75 US NJ: This Is Where Heroin Almost Killed HerSun, 04 Oct 2015
Source:Washington Post (DC) Author:Fisher, Marc Area:New Jersey Lines:336 Added:10/04/2015

Despite Soaring Rates of Addiction, Treatment Remains Hard to Access and Prohibitively Expensive

Ashley Gibbons had been holding it together, or so she told herself. Sure, she had sold off her electronics, stolen money from her mother and slept with guys who gave her money. But it wasn't as if she was an actual prostitute: "I didn't go and find random people. I knew them," she said.

She had tried heroin for the first time at 21, four years ago, and for a long while, it remained an occasional thing. But she needed more and more to get high, and, though she held onto her job, pretty soon everything else was falling apart.

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76US CA: Column: To Control Drugs, Accept Failure of 'War onThu, 01 Oct 2015
Source:Orange County Register, The (CA) Author:Rodriguez, Sal Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:10/01/2015

America will never get control of illegal drugs or immigrants until it accepts the failure of the "war on drug."

For over four decades, the U.S. government has been on a quixotic mission to stamp out drug use through prohibition, mass incarceration and international interdiction. One trillion dollars and millions of arrests later, 49.2 percent of Americans aged 12 or older reported illicit drug use in their lifetimes, 16.7 percent in the past year and 10.2 percent in the past month, according to the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

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77 US MA: Editorial: Two Wrong Calls On MarijuanaSun, 27 Sep 2015
Source:Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, MA)          Area:Massachusetts Lines:62 Added:09/27/2015

There were a couple of decisions on Tuesday involving marijuana. In our view, both were wrong.

The state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that police cannot pull over a vehicle simply because an officer smells burning marijuana, pointing to a 2008 ballot question approved by voters that decriminalized possession of one ounce or less of the drug. The court argued in part that because of the change in the law, the "strong" or "very strong" smell of unburnt marijuana is no longer enough to provide police with probable cause to believe that a criminal amount of the drug is present.

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78 US NV: Column: Drug Addiction Is A Medical ProblemThu, 17 Sep 2015
Source:Reno News & Review (NV) Author:Leslie, Sheila Area:Nevada Lines:89 Added:09/18/2015

Finally, there's a national plan more sophisticated than a soundbite. The gaping hole in the social safety net has allowed far too many Americans to descend into the nightmare of addiction.

Nevada, in particular, has been hit hard by the tragedy of heroin addiction and overdose deaths, as a close reading of the obituaries in newspapers around the state reveals. It's no surprise that our last place finish in the number of behavioral health professionals and a severe lack of state funding for treatment has led to 87 percent of Nevadans with drug addiction receiving no treatment last year. Alcoholics fared even worse. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administation's "behavioral health barometer" for 2014, 95 percent of Nevadans who needed treatment for alcoholism didn't get it.

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79US CA: Judge Halts Lawsuit Against Painkiller MakersSun, 30 Aug 2015
Source:Orange County Register, The (CA) Author:Puente, Kelly Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:08/31/2015

A judge has halted a lawsuit brought by Orange and Santa Clara counties accusing the nation's largest narcotics manufacturers of deceptive marketing that caused an epidemic of addiction and overdoses.

The lawsuit filed last year by Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas claims five pharmaceutical companies spent millions to convince the public that drugs meant only for short-term use by cancer patients should be taken for chronic pain.

But in a hearing on Thursday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Moss sided, in part, with the drug companies, ruling that the Federal Drug Administration has the ultimate authority to determine the safety of prescription drugs.

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80CN AB: Drug Court Feted As It Deals With CutsTue, 25 Aug 2015
Source:Edmonton Journal (CN AB) Author:Parsons, Paige Area:Alberta Lines:Excerpt Added:08/26/2015

Service wins award for lengthy effort helping addicted offenders

Months after losing a major chunk of its funding and half of its staff, the Edmonton Drug Treatment Court Service is being honoured for its decade-long effort helping drug-addicted offenders.

The program is the recipient of the 2015 "True Imagination" award from the Lieutenant-governor's Circle on Mental Health and Addiction. It was chosen for its contributions creating supports for and advancing understanding of mental illness and addiction.

The drug treatment court started in December 2005 as a way to deal with offenders whose crimes were linked to drug addiction.

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