Drug Courts Work

Our panelists:
Jan D. Stout, Bob Bogart, Suzanne Brown and David Ray

Every year there are over a million prison bound, drug abusing offenders who pose little threat to society. Upon leaving prison, most relapse and commit new crimes. Half are re-incarcerated for new violations.

At our last meeting the Coalition learned about the Recovery Drug Courts in Sullivan County. These courts increase the likelihood for successful rehabilitation through continuous and intense judicially supervised treatment, including frequent monitoring, consistent supervision, intensive treatment and rewards or sanctions.

Sullivan County Recovery Drug Court Goals:

1. Reduce the destruction of lives and property due to drug and alcohol addiction
2. Reduce the overall impact to society by reducing the number of of repeat offenders in the judicial system for drug or alcohol related crimes
3. Provide mandatory supervised structured treatment to drug offenders without regard to wealth
4. Educate the public about the mission and goals of the Recovery Drug Court

For more information, go to our website and watch the meeting presentation.

FDA's "The Real Cost" Campaign

The FDA has a new campaign directed at youth. The above video is engaging because it slowly reveals the "bully." Although the numbers will be harder to measure, we hope this campaign will be as successful as the "Tips From Former Smokers" campaign. That media campaign helped 1,600,000 smokers attempt to quit, with 200,000 reporting success three months later. The CDC estimates that half of those will be permanent.