North Carolina’s Drug Courts Are There To Help With Your Addiction

If you’ve become addicted to opioids and have struggled to get new prescriptions filled, you may have turned to heroin or other drugs to fill that void. Unfortunately, these drugs are highly addictive, and there is a chance that you will struggle to avoid illegal acts.

It is troubling to be arrested for drug use, but you should know that times are changing. While a prison sentence and fines might have been the only options for a judge in the past, North Carolina now has drug recovery courts that are there to help those who are chemically dependent on drugs.

Drug courts arose as a direct result of needing to find new ways to help those with addictions. Prison isn’t always a solution, but treatment can be. That’s why these specialty courts often help with individualized treatment plans including counseling, drug testing, supervision, incentives and sanctions. If this is your first offense, it’s worth talking to your attorney about the potential to have your case go through the drug courts rather than the traditional system.

Drug courts today are trying to help people who have become addicted to drugs. With over 12,000 people who have died in the state as a result of opioid-related overdoses between 1999 and 2016, this is just one more way that the state is trying to help those with addiction issues instead of locking them up. That doesn’t mean that a prison sentence isn’t possible, but in some cases, you may be able to seek treatment instead, which can help you get your life back on track and even avoid some of the harsher traditional penalties for drug possession.