OPENING OF TERREBONNE DRUG COURT CELEBRATED

More than 100 people gathered on the front lawn of Leonard J. Chabert
Medical Center Friday afternoon.

The hospital employees, law enforcement officers, parish and state
officials were there to celebrate the start of Terrebonne's long-awaited
drug court.

"It is a very exciting thing to see it start at nothing and go to this,"
said Kevin Guidry, District Attorney Office administrator.

The grand opening ceremonies were held within a few feet of the court's new
home -- a manufactured building set up on the front lawn of Chabert.

Chabert has agreed to provide hospital space to drug court administrators
and provide counseling facilities and medical services to those sentenced
by the judge.

"It's a rare occasion that we are able to participate in such an endeavor,"
Chabert Administrator Danny Trahan said of the arrangement between the
state hospital and the local legal system.

The alternative court system offers treatment rather than incarceration for
first-time non-violent drug offenders.

Local officials have been working toward the establishment of a drug court
for more than three years. They were finally able to establish one through
a $498,000 Department of Justice grant.

The grant, awarded last summer, will defray costs for the first three
years. About 20 participants will go through each of the program's three,
six-month phases of counseling, court monitoring and drug testing.

"It's an intensive supervision process for first time offenders who have
made a big mistake," said District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr.

Judge John LeBlanc, the man who has presided over Lafourche Parish's drug
court for two years, said he was proud of what Terrebonne had already
accomplished and pledged his cooperation.

"You can change lives with this program," he said. "We welcome you aboard."

John Weimer, a state Supreme Court justice from Thibodaux who helped start
a drug court in Lafourche Parish, said the ceremony marked a historic day
in Terrebonne's criminal justice system.

"It takes political courage, a compassionate spirit of intergovernmental
cooperation and wisdom to create a drug court," he said.

Weimer also said it was particularly fitting that the ceremony was held on
the grounds of Chabert, which he called an institution of healing.

"We're losing far too many citizens to the ravages of substance abuse," he
said.

Cary Heck, director of the state drug court program, said the Terrebonne
program was starting on the right foot.

"It looks to me like you guys have been doing everything right," he said.