Lake County fights addiction through community action
Taylor Davison
Drug court takes place every Wednesday at the Lake County Courthouse.
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Addiction is the great equalizer, according to Crozer Health Recovery Center director David Moran. It doesn’t care about race, age, or status. The fact that anyone can fall victim to addiction under the right circumstances is a lesson the opioid epidemic brought to light. Instead of assigning shame and instead getting to the root of the problem, people in Lake County’s drug court and related organizations are working to help victims of addiction both recover and regain their confidence through a sense of community.
When some hear the word “court,” the mind turns to the likes of crime shows: strict judges and harsh punishments and people taken away in handcuffs. That isn’t, however, how things are done in the Lake County Drug Court.
A judge since 2013, James Manley noticed a connection between addiction and crime. Conducting a “non-scientific study,” Manley decided to keep track of 100 people he sentenced to determine how many of their felonies were related to addiction. A staggering 93% were. Realizing county crime could be lessened by addressing underlying addictions, he searched for a better way to do things. He began studying peer-reviewed medical papers on addiction, as well as traveling the state to see how drug courts worked. In 2016, Manley and others formed the Lake County’s drug court.
“It’s really a treatment court. It’s treating addiction,” Drug Court Coordinator Dana Comes At Night stated. “People have substance abuse disorders that push criminal activity. If we can treat the disorders instead of just throwing them in jail, most of the time the problem corrects itself.”
A minimum 14-month-long program, based on the progress of the individual, Drug Court accepts references from probation officers and defense attorneys, misdemeanor and voluntary cases, and even family services (DFS) cases as well. The program works in five phases:
In phase one, the stabilization phase, participants complete a multitude of weekly requirements. They attend drug court meetings, group therapy sessions, legal action center (LAC) meetings, individual therapy meetings and take random drug tests. This phase lasts a minimum of two months. Ensuring that proper housing is secured could be another component of the program.
“If you’re worried about where you’re laying your head at night, you’re not really going to be invested in treatment. [Another] of the big things is learning how to live sober in your community where you have all these triggers and all these people you know that are still using,” Comes At Night explained.
Phase two is much the same, lasting a minimum of three months. Weekly appointments are still required as the recovery process continues.
In phase three, participants are eased back to meetings and appointments every other week, except for group sessions. At this point, participants have achieved about six months of sobriety, so their time with the LAC lessens. This stage lasts a minimum of four months.
Phase four brings the participants down to once-a-month court and LAC appointments. Testing slows down, and baby steps are taken until participants complete the phase and reach graduation. But graduation doesn’t mean the end of this program.
Finally, phase five is aftercare, ideally keeping contact with the participant for up to two years. Graduates are invited to come to court and a group session afterward once a month. This stage has been more recently introduced and Comes At Night notes that it seems to be working, encouraging graduates to continue showing up and supporting each other.
One thing the Lake County Drug Court does that is uncommon among other drug courts, explained Comes At Night, is allowing participants to have contact with each other.
“Humans are the most herd animals on the planet,” Manley said. “We seem to need to belong to a community or tribe or family… These people are part of the recovery community.”
Even the individuals not accepted into Drug Court are still assisted in finding resources to keep them engaged in recovery. There are several resources for those outside the court system as well.
The treatment provider the court works with, Cedar Creek Integrated Health, has support group sessions that are open to everyone.
CSKT Tribal Behavioral Health offers both a methadone clinic and a suboxone clinic, in addition to outpatient rehabilitation and counselling services.
Organizations like the Open Aid Alliance, a harm reduction organization with a location in Polson, focus on preventing overdoses, and minimizing the spread of HIV and Aids through needle usage. Many of their locations throughout Montana offer HIV and Hepatitis C testing, naloxone distribution to reduce overdoses, and a syringe service program that provides sterile supplies.
“No one needs to die from a death that’s preventable,” said Rebecca Ramos of the Open Aid Alliance. “The cost of a clean syringe is about one cent. The cost of supporting someone on state-sponsored healthcare with HIV over their lifetime can be over a million dollars. It’s a much more responsible decision to provide clean injection equipment. It also teaches people to have self-respect. For a lot of people, we might be the only people in their life that know they use drugs. Having a place where people who can come in and talk about drug use without facing judgement… there’s a lot of research that proves that connecting with people on that level can be a bridge to care for people who are interested.”
While stereotypes still rule a lot of public opinion about addiction, Drug Court workers and participants are working to overcome these societal stigmas.
“Only a quarter of the people we serve are homeless. That means 75% of our participants are housed. They have jobs, they have families, they’re professionals in your community. They’re not necessarily the people that you would expect,” Ramos stated.
“Addicts get this bad rap… it’s one of my biggest pet peeves,” Comes At Night said. “It’s all just people who are hurt, who have some sort of trauma, or just got stuck in that addiction and it became unmanageable, and they lost their identity. Here we have a great team of people who are working hard to help these guys figure out who they are again, so they can continue it on and help others. I’m really proud of the participants we have.”
Manley spoke of local and former addict Don Roberts as someone who has gone above and beyond in public service since recovery.
Since achieving sobriety, Roberts opened a recovery center, much like a community center, where former addicts can come to talk, have a coffee, and support each other. Some 300 people now belong to his recovery community. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have made the old forestry department building in Ronan available to Never Alone Recovery Support Services for free.
Seeing a need for sober living centers for those in the drug court program, Roberts formed an LLC to help establish a men’s sober living facility. A women’s sober living facility has also been recently established, making Lake County the only drug court in Montana with sober living centers for its participants and graduates.
Encouraged by what he’s seen from over 40 graduates of their program, Manley stated, “Once they get a hang of [sobriety], they do a lot of public service just on their own.”
