HOUGHTON?- There are currently 84 drug treatment courts in Michigan, according to a Michigan Judiciary website. Michigan Compiled Laws (MCL) 600.1060 defines drug treatment court as “a court surveyed treatment program for individuals who abuse or are dependent upon any controlled substance of alcohol.”

97th District Court is one of four regional drug courts in the state and serves Houghton, Keweenaw, and Baraga Counties.

“This is a regional,” 97th District Court Judge Mark A. Wisti said. “It was the first in the country.”

Drug court is unique.

“It’s much different from any other type of court. It’s intended as non-confrontational, non-adversarial, and basically, it is administering a very intensive outpatient treatment program,” Wisti said.

According to a state-issued press release on the status of drug courts, one of the goals of the drug court is to establish abstinence from alcohol and drug use among the participant population.

“You have what’s called a target population,” Wisti said, “and generally what we’re aiming for here is repeat offenders, who primarily have been charged with drunk driving. We are a hybrid, however. Most district courts only do drunk drivers; we do also take other substance abusers, which would primarily be your opiates such as your hydros and your oxies.”

Statewide, 56 percent of the participants in district drug courts identified alcohol as their drug of choice, according to Wisti’s document, but locally, the number is around 80 percent whose drug of choice is alcohol, Wisti said.

While roughly 80 percent of those who appear before Wisti, he said “and 20 percent people who are addicted to opiates.”

By “hydros, oxies,” and opiates, Wisti is referring to pain killers such as hydrocodone and oxycodone, which can be legally obtained only through a prescription by a doctor.

“You have to understand this: oxycodone is literally made out of the morphine molecule,” he said. “And that literally is, as I understand it, is basically heroine. When heroine came out it was considered a miracle drug.”

Drug court is also unique in that it looks more at the reason a crime was committed than the crime itself. In looking at substance abuse addiction.

“We absolutely want to avoid jail time,” Wist said. “Jail is considered a last resort. For your second time drunk driving, it’s mandatory under the statute that you do five days in jail. But if you’re going to put somebody in, it will be generally for no longer than six days.”

So, once a person appears in drug court, what happens next? A very intensive, court-monitored treatment program, which consists of either inpatient or outpatient substance abuse treatment, counseling, and monitoring that lasts for 15 months and is divided into five phases.

“The first 90 days are particularly intense,” said Wisti. “We try… to get them on what’s called a sober link, which is literally a portable breath test. They are required to get into treatment. Most of them are at the Phoenix House, but there are other providers who come in. They are required to go to self-help meetings, either Smart Recovery or AA, anywhere from two to fours a month for the first 90 days, then it cuts back. They meet with me once a week every Thursday.”

The treatment recipient is assigned to a treatment team, which consists of the primary probation agents, a representative of the Phoenix House, and a number of other area treatment providers. Every two weeks Wisti meets with the team to discuss each person in the program, case by case.

The program participants are “intensely monitored for substances,” Wisti said. The goal is to get participants to gain complete independence from addictive substances. There are, however, times when that goal can meet with setbacks.

“We’ll have a discussion about it,” Wisti said. “We’ll discuss it with the treatment providers; we’ll get their input; generally it’s going to be an increase of some sort of treatment, and increase in testing, something along these lines.”

In addition to intense substance abuse treatment, participants also “have police visiting them at their homes at night,” Wisti said.

The drug court does not want people to fail.

“We try to be very supportive of them,” Wisti said. “We try to give them incentives, which aren’t much, like a gift card and things of this nature.”

Wisti has seen the success of the drug court and is glad to be a part of it.

“Some of it’s really astonishing, how people turn around,” he said.

“We’ve had 80 to 100 people come through this court,” Wisti said. “We’ve had two people convicted after going through the court, I believe.”

So, how does one measure success or failure of each participant?

“Just about everybody coming in here has a severe substance abuse problem,” Wisti said. “If they make it through the program, I guess that would be a success.”