wouldn't have you back sooner but but we're here to talk about something that's extremely important and something that you deal with on a daily basis and as a judge in washington county and you've been a judge for how many years now i mean my i've been a judge for twelve years twelve years and you follow in the footsteps of your dad which is awesome and you sit on a special division of of the court system which would you explain that's right yes i am part of the criminal court restrictive treatment program which is also known as the drug treatment court so when you say treatment court that's a little bit different then there's a somebody in front of you in the courts and they're being penalize for some violation using the word treatment mean that you're sitting there trying to help these people in their problem exactly it is a different it's a departure from the traditional role of the judge in the court they are the folks that come in front of me are coming on a sentence they've been convicted or found guilty or in violation of their previous probation and but we've identified them and folks that are struggling with addiction or other issues but the drug treatment corded are those folks struggling with substance abuse and addiction and we have found that if we can treat that addiction and treat that underlying issue which brings them into the criminal justice system then they will not be the will no longer be involved with the criminal justice system will reduce the reset of business they'll be less likely to re offend and it's a very valuable program so when someone comes in front of you with a dui explain to us the process of what you're how you're trying to help them county jail system or even in the state because when you get up to one year or more then you're looking in a state penitentiary so we have found that rather than the  rather than just incarcerating them and warehousing that individual the the system is much more effective if we work on that alcohol addiction or other substances involved in that be why either the term dui that could be a drug addiction a sense and so forth sorry alcohol right it's driving on the influence of alcohol or controlled substances or a combination of alcohol and drugs so even a prescription drug someone has taken a prescription drug provided to them by their physician those people can fall out of that category as well tell them often that just having the prescription is not your defense see if you have a prescription for a controlled substance particularly an opiate or opioid or narcotic you have a great responsibility be careful with  with driving and all those medications are labeled a warning you have the right wow so you sit on the board as i do it's a wash and call a drug and alcohol commission and you work with the commission then as a judge explain to us that process explain to us what the first of all just what the commission is and what they do to watch in a drug and alcohol commission is our what we call our single county authority every county has  a drug and alcohol entity or that serves that county art our single county authority is called the watch and drug and now call commission and they have an office in milk center and they do a whole host of drug and alcohol treatment and referrals they also provide for my court they provide the case management for dui treatment court and for the restrictive treatment program that the drug treatment courts and i have so they work they are each offender in my drug court or my dui court to define a case manager from the drug and alcohol commission who is part of our treatment team involved in that in that program and you've been that board has been a existence how long and at least no five and i'm new to the board i think i've been a book on the board for now four months or so for five months and it was a learning process for me i had a little bit of understanding of opioid addiction in my training in medical school but and we were taught signs and symptoms to kind of identify people that were addicted and so forth but i'll tell you my my views of expanded greatly since i've been on this board my understanding and and the the effect of the devastation on families and on the whole community in general it's just absolutely amazing how an addiction interferes with everyday living and the taxpayers actually are impacted and they don't even realize it because of their tax dollars are being used for police to arrest these people or to break up drug places and things like that and these addictions really impacts society greatly absolutely not only the police in the drug task force in the court system you know it's oh the addiction is impacting the entire criminal justice system and also the  sometimes are unable to work because of their addiction and increase of the robberies and the break ins and the assaults and things like that and so this the system gets bombarded by this from every angle and actually overloaded and what  i found was really interesting is this group this drug and alcohol commission they intently worked to prevent all this and they're becoming the model for the whole state of pennsylvania yes it's exciting they are group of people that are doers they just all sit and talk which is you get some of these organizations get together and talk and that's about it but these people are out there working hard and doing things it's a it's amazing for me just as a newcomer to this to observe all of this it is we have a lot of good people in the are they are getting it done they do just talk about what they're going to do or what should be done you know we have this conception i think in the public you know you're a judge you sit there and say ok you're sentenced this and you hit the hammer next case and but you're not that's not the way this works you're you're you're involved as is our district attorney gene the town and the head of the commission cheryl they're working hard to keep people out of the system exactly and they're doing this give us a number of ways how they're doing with us what's that what's the procedure and how they're preventing people from repeat offenders and so well we in the the the folks there in the criminal justice system we're trying to identify those that are struggling with substance abuse whether it's opioids so we have several ways that we're we're dealing one is our drug treatment core program where the offender take responsibility for their criminal acts but they agreed to  sign of performance contract where they agreed to submit for the treatment whatever it'll be that's all managed by the drug and alcohol commission case manager so when you say they take responsibility for it what exactly does that mean that means they have  and they've taken responsibility for their actions ok so typically that would mean they do some probation or some sentence in jail or some some find something to that effect so are they then taken out of that system as far as going to jail or paying a fine or they still have the responsibility there they are taken out of jail we get them out of jail and into a treatment facility initially they'll start with impatient and then and then they'll go to a halfway house an outpatient step down but they are still responsible for whatever fin costs they have incurred and of course restitution for those robberies or burglaries it seems that they don't shirk that responsibility sometimes they were trying to get them out of the jail into the treatment sometimes depending on the offense we include the whole house arrest or electronic home armoring with as part of their sentence but yes they are part of being in recovery or attempting to achieve recovery is being accountable and taking responsibility for owning which is done so then you send in the treatment and that could require some medications and so forth  our body and on just about every cell of our body and once they become engaged they then have a requirement and you take a little bit of alcohol a little bit of a drug and then use requires a lot more a little which not too many people really utilize or know about actually and it's sort of like an off label type of thing but low does not tracks on actually keeps facing down the stimulates your immune system it's kind of interesting but that's a whole nother topic but that but when you're when they become excited they have a craving you know give up give us that craving and that's what creates our addiction you know it's interesting we're going to be doing a study on the board with hopefully with the use of  and gets you off the open opioid addictions so hopefully that will work with the effect of another modeller be treating treating these people that are addicted so anyway so you we have that but education is a big deal here were you're trying to educate this board and your system is trying to educate these people to not utilize these these dicta products and so how are you doing that return to have a holistic achieving recovery maintaining recovery and and then narcotics anonymous adopted that similar twelve steps we also offer don't want that but we have learned that spirituality is an important part of recovery the studies of those that are able to sustain their recovery have some form of spirituality whether it's the religious part or something that the higher power or something that motivates them to maintain their recovery it might be their profession or their  their family their children something that motivates them spiritually to maintain and that's an important part of absolutely when when you're on the bench do you see all these groups coming in to you or particular age group are armenian age is around thirty that's the majority of our folks but we have all it happens to all walks of life and of course this is in adult court so the of prescribed medication or i mean this involves everything from cocaine meth to prescription drugs and alcohol so that's the majority that you see in front of you the majority so powerful that there's it completely changes their thought process and the attic stop processing ability to reason when they hear a warning on the in it's really hard for us to understand that but again their thinking is completely has been completely rewired or unwired so they're not thinking clearly my any means and so you see some repeat offenders so so what is it take like three strikes you're out kind of deal or do you still work with somebody that has come before you three times we try to we don't we don't have a set  protocols well this is your third strike you have to go we try to look at every case case by case because every case is a little different and we give we sometimes give more chances maybe than we should and  but you have to look at every case differently and sometimes it is sometimes it takes that third or fourth time for the individual to say i really get it now i really need to turn this around quickly that's utilized a lot i happen to have a relative who is a police office that in one day administered the locks on three times of the same person and it's scary when you hear something like that because here somebody that has come back and then done it twice within the same day is there hope for that person yes it again it's hard for us to fathom that because we're thinking clearly in that that takes away that effect of the drug on the receptor is right so that person is immediately sick from withdrawal you've saved their life and now they're sick so they're so six that they want to use they want to use again to get rid of that sickness a lot of our addicts are chasing are just trying to not be sick on a daily basis as something you don't think about and not they're not getting the  effect anymore that they may have had him at the outset they're just trying to not be ill in this terrible flu it's been described as you have the flu this is like the your worst flu times ten that they have to deal with every day so they're just trying to not be ill so it does happen is frustrating for certainly for first responders that you're back at the same house but there are there there is hope for that washington and some of the impoverished areas in the valley see more of a density and it is but it is happening all over the county and nobody's exam the affluent communities are handing  but we see it more in in the first what is the how do you tribute that to those those areas i mean it takes money to buy this stuff first of all but is it because life is so miserable for these people and they are looking for that as an escape and then i on the outside and the more well to do areas where this is going on what's the reason for that but they have the access saying use the and says the non steroidal and so forth before you ever prescribe and you know pain is as a result of inflammation basically if you can subdue that inflammation then you get rid of the pain generally and with a noise there's no inflammation reduction it's just you trick the mind and to not know the pain you know to remember the pain or to fill the pain so it's better always to remove that information than to have drug manufacturers myself you know they they put the burden on physicians i will tell you that that's that's the new thing they've put the burden on physicians as far as prescribing but the drug companies push that stuff and they push it on t v he made bush had they push it to the physicians as well you know and that's what has to change as far as i'm concerned you know we have to stop this pushing of drugs and i agree but so tell us the process  dui my first one and i'm now in front of you on the bench what happens well for your first dui you would see mean there were no extenuating circumstances you didn't have an accident involving serious injuries and you are free to break which we call a r d program or celebrated rehabilitative disposition it's a diversionary program where instead of the mandatory jail sentence that you would face up to three days in jail you would go on probation you do drug and alcohol valuation and complete course of alcohol highway safety school if you complete everything successfully and don't get in trouble again your charges are dismissed and your record can be expunged that's why we call it diversionary actually get a conviction that's and it's a break for the first offense you don't get a instead of a one year mandatory l we're on some type of prescription meds that's not as clear cut we will the police if they stop gave a legitimate reason for stopping you first of all whether you're weaving or you have an accident or maybe just you commit some traffic violation and if there were queues signs that you were under the influence of something at our caller something  else you know the alcohol is a little easier there be an odor and so forth but the police have some are trained in that they'll see these other cues for intoxication of other substances