Circuit Judge Lauren Laughlin called into session the drug court without fanfare, her first hours of duty as the drug judge spent clearing away old non-drug cases left over from her 2000 docket. Though there were just a dozen drug defendants during the new court's first day, numbers will soon rise dramatically, perhaps to 2,500 in the first year, the judge said. The court, already operated in Hillsborough and Citrus counties, is designed to send non-violent offenders, mostly addicts charged with drug possession, to intensive treatment rather than prison. The judge oversees a strict program of treatment and supervision for felony defendants. Defendants are going to be allowed to fail.
Failure is in the nature of addiction.
How many times they are allowed to fail is a function of the presiding judge. Pinellas has hired a drug court coordinator with a federal grant. Other expenses, from treatment to drug tests for defendants, will be provided by a bevy of profit and non-profit treatment programs. Officials have set no deadlines by which funding must be obtained, expecting that the court will have no problem operating for the first year. State Attorney Bernie McCabe's office is the gatekeeper for the drug court, his prosecutors deciding which defendants are eligible.