LV Program builds on Fla. beginnings

District Court Judge Jack Lehman began the Las Vegas Drug Court in 1992, but the history of the program can be traced to Florida's Dade County, which includes the city of Miami.

In the mid-1980s, the Florida Supreme Court called for an investigation into the effects that the war on drugs was having on suppliers.

"What they found was that the price of drugs was not fluctuating," Lehman said. "If it had gone up, then that would indicate that suppliers were having a harder time getting it into the country. The attack on suppliers was not having the effect they had hoped for, so they shifted to going after the user."

Out of 1 million drug arrests in the Florida area in the '80s, two-thirds were for possession, Lehman said.

In 1988, Judge Stanley Goldstein started the Dade County Drug Court, the first such court in the nation to combat the growing number of users while not using jail space.

The aim of the court is to divert drug users from jail to a productive, drug-free lifestyle, Goldstein said.

About 89 percent of defendants complete the program in Miami and go without an arrest for at least a year, Goldstein said.

Dade County attorney Sam Mones, who has had 15 clients go through the program, praises it. All of his clients passed the program and had their felony charges sealed and dropped.

Lehman and a contingent of lawmakers, lawyers and judges from Nevada visited the Florida court and were impressed with the results.

Lehman then took a class given by Goldstein about the program at the National Judicial College in Reno. After that, the only question was how to fund the program in Las Vegas, Lehman said.

The funding question was answered when Clark County opened a DUI traffic school. The school provides Drug Court with $300,000 to $400,000 a year.

"Rehabilitation for drug addictions can be very costly because of how hard it is to quit," Lehman said. "These are people who need to be here, and it is actually a very cost-effective program."

archive