DRUG COURT'S MAKING A DIFFERENCE

In the 10 years since Volusia County established a separate drug
court, 411 people have made it through the program.

But there's no way to count the lives that have been touched -- the
number of parents who've seen their sons or daughters get their lives
back on track, the number of children who have been raised by loving
parents who now put their welfare before the quest for the next fix.

The idea of handling addicts in a separate, specialized judicial
setting seems like a no-brainer today, with the program's impressive
track record -- 85 percent of all drug-court graduates have not been
convicted of another crime since they completed the program. But when
Volusia County's drug court started, it had plenty of nay-sayers who
painted drug court as mollycoddling. They scoffed at the program's
willingness to tolerate occasional backsliding by participants and
focus on self-esteem.

The reality: Drug court is tough. But it's the right kind of tough.
The old approach relied on an escalating level of incarceration, a
process that frequently pushed drug users further into despair and
addiction. Far better to focus on helping them rebuild -- as
drug-free, and productive, members of society.