It is predictable, progressive, symptomatic, and treatable. Effectiveness of Court-ordered Treatment. A key premise of these standards is that treatment is effective. Furthermore, research reveals that motivation improves as treatment progresses, and that abusers who are coerced into treatment fare just as well as, if not better than, those who enter into treatment voluntarily. In fact, most substance abusers enter treatment not voluntarily, but rather because they are forced by such factors as a family intervention, pressure from a spouse, or the insistence of an employer or co-worker.
Voluntary participation is rare, since denial is a symptom of the disease of substance abuse.
One goal of treatment is for the substance abuser to recover to the degree that he or she takes responsibility for his of her behavior. Treatment does not always work the first or even the second time, so that relapse should not be a cause for giving up on a substance abuser. In fact, strategies to prevent and address relapse are critical to the effectiveness of treatment. The following standards are intended to provide guidance in the implementation of the Supreme Judicial Court Policy Statement on Substance Abuse. They present a single orientation with which the judicial branch, including judges and all court personnel, can work together with prosecutors, the defense bar, corrections officials, and public and private treatment providers to address the problem of substance abuse which pervades the court system's caseload.