New Pinellas County Drug Court Program Targets Women with Prescription Drug Addictions

The Pinellas County Drug Court was recently awarded a $1.9 million grant from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Association (SAMSHA) to fund a new program designed to treat women who have been charged with prescription drug offenses. This innovative alternative to traditional prosecution is called the "Pinellas County Adult Drug Court Collaborative." It adopts a structured method of treatment that effectively responds to the increasing number of female offenders who are misusing and/or abusing prescription drugs. Participation in the program is limited to a maximum of 70 female participants per year. The program conducted its first evaluation on January 5, 2009. As of March 4, 2009, 29 people have already been assessed for participation and monitoring in this program through the Pinellas County Drug Court. Successful participants can avoid formal felony convictions and in some cases even have their criminal charges dismissed.

In order to participate in the SAMSHA funded Pinellas County Adult Drug Court Collaborative, the client must be a woman who is charged with a prescription drug offense. Common examples of criminal charges appropriate for this program include Possession of a Controlled Substance without a Prescription, F.S. 893.13(6)(a) or Obtaining a Controlled Substance by Fraud, F.S. 893.13(7)(a)9.

How Does it Work?

The Drug Court Judge can order defendants to receive a special assessment, or it can be requested by the defendant's attorney. This special substance abuse assessment is referred to as a "GAIN evaluation" (Global Appraisal of Individual Needs). The GAIN evaluation is very comprehensive and takes about 3 hours to complete. If our client is recommended for participation in the program, the subsequent counseling takes place on an individual one-to-one basis for the first five weeks. Thereafter, the last seven weeks of counseling are in a group setting. Each counseling session is one time a week for a total of twelve sessions over a twelve week period.

This new program is structured to provide an expedited method of quickly following up an arrest for a substance abuse related offense with effective focused treatment. In other drug court cases, the typical time from arrest to admission into treatment is 24 weeks. Of this time, at least 24 days are spent waiting for screening and assessment. In contrast, the new "Collaborative" program is able to provide an evaluation very quickly after arrest and to allow a person to begin treatment within two weeks or less after receiving a GAIN evaluation.

PAR Representative Georgina Rullo expects this new program to be highly effective. She believes that it directly addresses the recidivism problem that plagues many women who are addicted to prescription medication. Both the GAIN evaluation and the subsequent counseling sessions are focused specifically on the underlying psychological issues that most female prescription drug offenders share. These issues are often related to low self-esteem, destructive relationships, socio-economic status, and the effects of peer pressure.

Given the Pinellas County Drug Court's success in treating the addiction, rather than incarcerating the offender (in 2008, 87% of drug court participants had remained arrest free for at least a year after completing the drug court program), our office is looking forward to utilizing the new Adult Drug Court Collaborative as one more tool to help our clients avoid conviction, incarceration, and a permanent criminal record.

If you have been charged with a prescription drug offense in St. Petersburg, Clearwater, or another area of Pinellas County, we are lawyers who can help. Call our office at (727) 578-0303 for a free consultation.

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Former State Prosecutors
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St. Petersburg, FL 33702
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