Because of the tremendous societal consequences of drug abuse, the possession or sale of most heavy and highly addictive drugs (like methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and prescription painkillers) is considered a serious crime. However, lawmakers also recognize the fact that many who are arrested for drug possession or sale are addicts themselves. As a result, some drug offenses are classified separately under state law and they can provide the trial judge with discretion to order alternatives to incarceration, like court-supervised probation or even a stay in rehab. Read on to learn more about how petitioning for supervised suboxone treatment or another alternative to incarceration may be able to help you kick your opiate habit while also avoiding time in prison.
What can supervised treatment offer?
Suboxone treatment is different from what many think of when they hear the term "rehab" -- rather than expecting you to go cold turkey, treatment personnel will instead provide you with a maintenance dose of suboxone on a regular basis. This will help you avoid withdrawal symptoms and other unpleasant physical side effects of detoxification that can leave you scrambling for anything to relieve the pain and discomfort. As long as you take your suboxone under physician-controlled conditions (which usually requires you to attend the clinic in person rather than getting a refillable prescription that can be sold or abused), you'll have a relatively high chance of remaining clean compared to those who try to kick the heroin habit cold turkey or through the use of questionable methods like "rapid detox."
Because suboxone treatment requires such a high level of patient supervision, it is looked upon with favor by many trial courts that want to ensure those who are avoiding prosecution (or prison time) by entering treatment are gaining all the possible benefits from such treatment.
When should you enter treatment?
Although you may want to wait to enter treatment until after you've negotiated with the prosecutor and determined the potential penalties that await you, seeking help sooner rather than later is nearly always better. Not only can entering suboxone treatment improve your health, but it will help you avoid being picked up on a subsequent heroin possession or sale charge while you're still pending trial for the original one; seeking treatment without being prompted to do so can also go a long way toward demonstrating your commitment to sobriety to the prosecutor and the judge or jury.
For more information about treatment options, talk with a treatment center such as Brightside Clinic.
Share26 January 2017
My name is Katie Langer. For a long time, I was bed ridden and I felt like I had no control over my life. I simply went along with what was instructed by my doctor and I didn't ask questions. It wasn't that my doctor wasn't willing to work with me, but I preferred to simply not think about the illness I was suffering from. I didn't realize that some of the symptoms I was suffering from were side effects of my medication and were not normal. After communicating more with my doctor, I was able to alleviate my symptoms. Since then, I've taken an interest in patient-doctor relationships and how to improve them.
