Drug Courts

In the U.S. history there have been conceptions about habitual intoxication and drug use as sinful conduct and disease. During the last several years it is considered maladaptive behavior(problem behavior that is learned in a control environment). Today, many argue that addiction has evolved from all three of these sources; it is a disease in which people learn to act immoral ways. Regardless of the conceptions of addictive behavior, addiction knows no race, gender, age or socio-economic background. Addiction is pervasive but it is also treatable. Addiction has become an immense burden to our society that civil commitment programs have been developed by state and federal governments to control the problem in our society. Drug courts were created to alleviate the overcrowding of prisons of non-violent drug offenders. Instead of sending drug abusers with non-violent crimes to jail, they were sent to rehabilitation programs. As with anything there are positive and negative positions but the overall outcome is what is counted and I feel that positives outweigh the negatives with drug courts.
These drug courts are advocators of community coalition building which is the grassroots response to public health problems in rural or metro communities throughout the United States. Recognizing problems in addictions that do result from characteristics on the individual but are instigated and maintained by the conditions in the community as well (Thombs, 2006). Drug courts also have come to realization of the philosophical foundation of, “The World Health Organization”, (1998) and that is, the science and art of promoting health, preventing disease, and prolonging life through the organized efforts of society.” The first Drug Treatment Court (DTC), was established in the United States in 1989. These courts are designed to supervise cases of drug dependent offenders who have agreed to accept treatment for their substance abuse. The DTC apply the “learning model” behavioral...