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  • About HHS
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  1. Home
  2. National Opioids Crisis: Help and Resources
  3. How to Find Opioid Treatment Programs?
  4. What Are Drug Courts?
  • National Opioids Crisis: Help and Resources
    • Prevention
      • What are Opioids?
      • How to Safely Dispose of Drugs
      • Pain Management Best Practices Report
      • Safe Opioid Prescribing
      • Prevention Programs & Tools
    • Treatment
      • How to Find Opioid Treatment Programs?
      • Guide for Dosage Reduction
      • How Do Medications Treat Opioid Addiction?
      • Does Insurance Cover Treatment for Opioid Overdose?
      • How to Respond to an Opioid Overdose
      • What Are Drug Courts?
      • Resources for Opioid Treatment Providers
    • Recovery
      • What is Recovery?
      • Recovery Resources & Tools
    • Statistics, Facts, and Strategy Response
      • Opioid Facts and Statistics
      • HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy Response

What Are Drug Courts?

  • Drug courts help participants recover from use disorder with the aim of reducing future criminal activity.
  • As an alternative to incarceration, drug courts reduce the burden and costs of repeatedly processing low‐level, non‐violent offenders through the nation's courts, jails, and prisons while providing offenders an opportunity to receive treatment and education.
  • Drug court participants are required to abstain from substance use, to be accountable for their behavior and to fulfill the legal responsibilities of the offenses they have committed.

Drug Courts
Specialized court docket programs that help criminal defendants and offenders, juvenile offenders, and parents with pending child welfare cases who have alcohol and other drug dependency problems.

Adult Drug Courts and Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for Opioid Dependence
This guide highlights the use of MAT for opioid dependence in drug courts. It reviews effective medications and provides strategies to increase the use of MAT in drug court programs.

Family Treatment Drug Courts
FTDCs, alternatively known as dependency drug courts or family drug courts, use a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to serve families who require substance use disorder treatment and who are involved with the child welfare system.

Need Help?

Call the national help line

1-800-662-4357

Find treatment near you

FindTreatment.gov >>

Content created by Digital Communications Division (DCD)
Content last reviewed December 16, 2022
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