EX-USER OF DRUGS CREDITS COUNTY PROGRAM

It's been four years and five weeks since Ernest Hamilton used cocaine. The
drug he was addicted to, the one that cost him the trust of his family and
friends and sent him to jail, isn't a part of his life anymore, the
66-year-old Owasso retiree said.

He said he couldn't be more excited about thanking the people he credits
with getting him clean and sober.

Hamilton entered the Oklahoma County Drug Court program in October 1998 and
graduated a year and a half later. At this week's drug court steering
committee meeting, he said he could have been drug-free sooner if he had
believed in the program from the start.

"I'm a success story in spite of myself," Hamilton said as he addressed
civic and law enforcement leaders and the drug court team responsible for
his turnaround.

The Oklahoma County Drug Court is one of dozens of such programs across the
country. The courts are used as a type of probation to put first-time,
nonviolent drug offenders in treatment instead of jail.

Oklahoma City police Sgt. Vanessa Price, who drops in on drug court
enrollees unannounced to check on their progress, said the program has
several positive effects.

Price said 90 drug offenders have graduated from the local drug court since
its founding in 1998. Only three were later rearrested.

Drug court workers handle 118 offenders. The program has treated 375 since
its inception.

Price said taxpayers would have paid more than $1.3 million for each year
the 87 successful graduates might have been in jail.

With an average jail sentence of five years, the savings for the state
could be equated to five times that number, in the neighborhood of $6.5
million, she said.

Hamilton said cocaine sent his life into a downward spiral and twice landed
him in jail.

"I started by thinking I could handle (the drug)," he said. "I thought I
could take it or leave it.

At 52, Hamilton said, he became a cocaine addict.

"I started hustling drugs, lying to my family, lying to my friends," he
said. "It was a never-ending cycle. Then the police got me and took me to
jail."

Hamilton said that since quitting cocaine, he hasn't had a sip of alcohol.
He said he volunteers with senior citizens and returns to drug court
meetings every month to offer encouragement and advice.

"I think back to where I came from," he said. "So much was given to me, I
want to give it back."