Fort Collins is on track to start the state’s first municipal drug court using money from nationwide opioid settlement funds.
Fort Collins City Council unanimously approved on first reading the allotment of $75,000 from the settlement funds earlier this month.
Fort Collins — like other local governments nationwide — has started receiving settlement money from companies that made, sold or distributed opioid painkillers. Those companies — like Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen and Walmart — are paying more than $50 billion total in settlements from national lawsuits, according to KFF Health News.
The city of Fort Collins is expecting to receive $948,562.96 from this settlement over 18 years, to be paid out annually, according to a presentation made to City Council in July. The city received its first payment this year of $106,672.20.
An interdisciplinary advisory group formed to decide what the city should do with these funds determined that establishing a municipal drug court would have the largest impact, Municipal Chief Judge Jill Hueser said.
“We’re seeing an increase in mental health issues, we’re seeing an increase in drug use and substance use disorders, and I really want to do this to fill that local gap and to meet that local need,” Hueser said.
Drug courts are programs that offer people accused or convicted of crimes long-term drug treatment while being supervised by probation instead of a jail sentence or other criminal penalty.
The county and district courts already have successful and effective drug courts, Hueser said. The goal for the municipal drug court will be to identify individuals dealing with substance abuse disorders who are committing lower-level crimes and intervene earlier in their lives, before they escalate to higher-level courts.
The drug courts at the county and district court levels also have larger caseloads and “they can’t take everyone,” Hueser said. The municipal drug court, with its smaller case load, would be able to reduce the burden on the county court.
“I love, as a smaller court, taking ideas we know have worked and implementing them into our smaller court on a smaller scale,” Hueser said. “Bringing them from large scale down to the local level is one of the best things we can do.”
The municipal court currently deals very little with drug-specific violations, but Hueser said it often sees people accused of crimes like trespassing, camping or theft “who also have a concurrent substance use disorder.” People who are repeatedly arrested for these offenses (or others) and it’s clear substance use is contributing to their criminal activity or their inability to successfully complete other probation sentences may be good candidates for the municipal drug court, Hueser said.
Fort Collins police officers — who often have more information about individuals in the criminal justice system since they’re interacting with them out in the community, Hueser said — can also recommend people for drug court.
Hueser said there have been discussions around changing city ordinances to create municipal violations for drug paraphernalia possession and providing false identification — both crimes “that often cue us into the fact that someone is struggling with drug use” — which would bring those cases into municipal court from county court, and people accused in those cases may be good candidates for the municipal drug court.
“Recovery does not come overnight. It takes a lot of dedication and a lot of work, and there are often setbacks for people. They often relapse,” Hueser said. “The question is, ‘what do you do from there?’ … We (will) give second chances and third chances when someone is demonstrating a willingness to do it.”
Hueser said she’s wanted to establish a municipal drug court since she was hired during the COVID-19 pandemic, in June 2020. The idea sparked from what Hueser calls the “de-felonization” of personal use and possession of drugs.
When Hueser was a prosecutor, she said, the cases that were prioritized for drug court involved people who were repeat offenders with long criminal histories, not those arrested on low-level possession charges. A municipal drug court could help catch people dealing with substance abuse earlier — those arrested for possessing small amounts of illegal drugs — and get them help and support sooner.
“I felt like, as a municipal court judge, this was an opportunity to say, ‘hey, there are going to be people falling through the cracks who we might be able to reach if we’re able to do a similar program,’ ” Hueser said. “We know based on the thousands of drug courts in the country that drug courts work when they’re done right.”
The drug court will be the newest addition to the city’s problem-solving courts. The municipal court’s Right Track program is designed to support people in the criminal justice system through making positive lifestyle changes, from getting an ID or birth certificate to getting medical care to finding housing or employment. The program can include supporting people through substance use treatment, but Hueser said substance use disorder can often get in the way of people finding success in the Right Track Program.
“We have occasionally come across people, for instance, who are setting goals and they’re not able to move forward on their goals because a substance use disorder is really preventing them from accomplishing what they want to accomplish,” Hueser said.
The first round of funding approved by council will go toward hiring a probation officer and starting up the program. Hueser said she expects to go back to council early next year to ask for the next round of funding they’ll need for the program.
The approved funding from the settlement funds will also allow them to apply for grant money, which requires matching funds to qualify, Hueser said. The hope is the drug court will be able to start accepting participants early next year, starting with 10 participants and growing up to 20.
Council must vote to approve the first round of funding on second reading before it is officially approved, which is set for the Sept. 5 council meeting.
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