Are You Eligible For Drug Court In Palm Beach County?
Evidence that addiction is not something you can punish out of existence is everywhere in South Florida. In 2019, Colton Wooten, who moved to Florida several years earlier to enter an addiction facility, described his experiences with the Florida Shuffle, where people just out of inpatient rehab soon find their way to relapses and back to rehab. It stands to reason that, since his article appeared, the Florida shuffle has only gotten worse, since the COVID-19 pandemic has eroded so many of the sources of stability that previously helped people stay sober. The social stigma of addiction is a difficult burden to bear, and so is being labeled as a career criminal. The Palm Beach County courts offer a pretrial diversion program to most defendants in drug cases, and the Palm Beach County program is both more rigorous than in most other counties and more effective at helping participants stay sober. To find out more about pretrial diversion options in drug cases, contact a West Palm Beach drug offenses lawyer.
Drug Court Is Not Just for First-Time Offenders
If you have been searching Google for answers about possible outcomes of your drug arrest. You may have found that, in many counties, you can go to drug court, where, if you complete all the requirements, the court will drop the charges against you. The requirements usually include probation, addiction treatment, and random drug testing. In some counties, you can only participate in drug court if you have no prior convictions on your record. This means that, in these counties, if you got arrested for illegal possession of two Adderall pills this year at age 26, you are ineligible for drug court if you pleaded guilty to vandalism at age 18 and performed court-ordered community service.
Things are different in Palm Beach County. Whereas some counties offer drug court only in cases of simple possession, Palm Beach County has opened its drug court for all drug offenses except trafficking. Likewise, you can participate even if you have prior convictions on your record, as long as those convictions are not for drug trafficking or crimes of violence.
The West Palm Beach Drug Court Program Is Effective at Supporting Sobriety
Ideally, the drug court program lasts a year, but as any veteran of the Florida shuffle knows, relapses are part of most people’s path to sobriety. Testing positive for drugs does not automatically get you kicked out of drug court, but it does extend the amount of time until you graduate from the program. The goal of drug court is to stay sober, and many participants have achieved long-term sobriety after completing Palm Beach County drug court, even if they had been struggling with addiction for ten years or more before enrolling in drug court. Best of all, it costs only $20 per week to participate, making it much less expensive than serving a sentence.
Contact a West Palm Beach Drug Crimes Lawyer Today
A Palm Beach County criminal defense lawyer can help you enter a pretrial diversion program if you are facing criminal charges for drug offenses. Contact William Wallshein P.A. in West Palm Beach Florida to discuss your case.
Source:
discover.pbcgov.org/publicsafety/justiceservices/pages/drug-court.aspx
