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There are 700 Drug Courts in operation across the nation.
Concerns about their fairness and effectiveness have been raised.
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Providing coerced treatment, at a time when the needs for voluntary treatments
are not being met, creates the strange circumstance of someone needing to get
arrested to get treatment.
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People who are forced into treatment may not actually need it. They may just
be people who use drugs in a non-problematic way who happened to get
arrested.
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Drug Courts only rely on abstinence-based treatment. For example, methadone
is not available to heroin addicts. In addition, they rely heavily on urine testing
rather than focus on whether the person is succeeding in employment,
education or family relationships.
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Drug Courts often mandate twelve-step treatment programs that some believe
to be an infringement on religious freedom.
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Drug Courts invade the confidentiality of patient and health care provider. The
health care provider's client is really the court, prosecutor and probation officer,
rather than the person who is receiving drug treatment.
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Drug Courts are creating a separate system of justice for drug offenders not
based on the time honored adversarial roles of defense attorney, prosecutor
and judge. Therefore, a relapsed patient may end up with much harsher
penalties than from a regular court.
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Drug Courts may result in more people being prosecuted than ever, thus
expanding the harm caused by the drug laws.
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The intent to emphasize treatment is commendable.
Let's work together to mitigate potential harm.
For more information, visit: www.csdp.org.
Common Sense for Drug Policy, Kevin B. Zeese, President
703-354-9050, 703-354-5695 (fax), info@csdp.org
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