Hamilton County Drug Courts Offer Second Chance Despite Pandemic

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Over 81,000 drug overdose deaths occurred in 2020, according to the CDC. This is the highest number ever recorded.

“The opioid epidemic, we’ve been hearing a lot about that over the years,” Hamilton County Drug Recovery Court Judge Alex McVeagh says. “The pandemic only made it worse. The isolation folks felt, health issues, the economic distress many folks were in, it led to severe increases, relapse and overdose deaths.”

The Hamilton County drug recovery court was founded 16 years ago in an effort to address the rehabilitation drug offenders needed and offer plea opportunities in exchange for completing the program, but only at the felony level.

“We expanded the program a few years ago under a grant from President Trump and the Department of Justice to expand to the General Sessions misdemeanor level,” McVeagh says. “And our court continued to grow over the last couple years. And then the pandemic hit.”

Beating addiction often requires a stay at a residential treatment facility. But the pandemic restrictions has created a massive backlog, prolonging jail time and much needed substance abuse treatment.

“It’s been a struggle because that population is just… there’s a huge need for help,” Knox Farmer with CADAS says. “So you have people going to jail that totally, really need help and they need substance abuse treatment as quick as possible.”

Drug court is now back up and running. In fact, they just graduated their first class, a milestone Judge McVeagh feels personally honored to play a role in.

“I have a little bit of a personal connection to drug use in that growing up my very, very close cousin passed away from an opioid overdose and so again standing up here next to those graduates, I couldn’t help but think of my cousin, if he had a program like this standing up here at graduation,” McVeagh says.