Fortunately, the tide is slowly shifting in our country to address drug addiction more as health issues and less of a criminal justice issue. As a sign of that, counties across Texas have increasingly been creating and implementing specialized drug courts that are designed to provide court-supervised treatment as an alternative to traditional criminal sanctions for drug offenses. Two of our attorneys helped to draft and pass a bill last session that expanded the number of drug courts across Texas. Typically, drug courts involve a judge and other court officials that structure special non-adversarial programs designed to supervise and treat drug offenders in exchange for some type of diversion or sentence reduction. Luckily, in Travis County, we have a fantastic drug court program called S.H.O.R.T. that is an intensive, multi-phase program that if successfully completed, allows a person the opportunity to have the charges dismissed.
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