Recovering fentanyl user commends Douglas County drug court program

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Lauren is a recovering fentanyl user.

She didn’t want 6 News to use her last name because she doesn’t want her history to hinder her future goals, but she said she was exposed to fentanyl five years ago.

“It got brought out,” she said. “I asked what it was. I was told it was Percocet.”

She said she didn’t know it was fentanyl until a few months later. By then, she said she was already addicted. She ended up using it for two-and-a-half years, eventually taking up to 20 pills a day.

An overdose one night sent her to the hospital.

“I remember just a calm, serene feeling,” Lauren said. “Then, I woke up to my boyfriend giving me compressions.”

She said the change began in April 2022, when she was pulled over with around 100 pills in her vehicle.

Instead of doing prison time, she said her lawyer pushed for her to be admitted to the Douglas County Adult Drug Court program.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine highlights the program as a tool to save lives, helping users get clean rather than sending them to prison.

“People are monitored,” Kleine told 6 News in February. “Sometimes they slip, and we stay with them. As long as they’re willing to keep trying, we do stay with them until we can finally get them to the point where they feel like their addiction’s under control.”

Candidates for the program must have pleaded guilty to a felony charge related to a substance-dependent lifestyle in district court.

“We’re hoping that as they progress, they have the community supports that they need to rely on,” drug court coordinator Teresa Noah said.

Noah said the average participant spends between 18 to 24 months in the program. It includes five phases in which they regularly have one-on-one or group counseling meetings, receive mental health services, get set up with community support resources like 12-step programs, and create their own plans for how to stay sober.

“Phase 5 is about that reintegration fully back into the community without the legal supervision,” she said.

Since 1997, Noah said 2,155 people have graduated from the program, and some of them do reoffend.

“What we know, and what the national research shows, is that the recidivism rates are drastically reduced when individuals go through and participate in a drug court program versus traditional incarceration.”

She sees Lauren making strides.

For her part, Lauren said it’s been a lot of work and it’s been exhausting, but she’s now two years sober.

The next steps are getting her own place and going back to college.

“I feel like I can actually look towards a future now,” she said. “Whereas in the past, I didn’t really care about my future. I didn’t think I would be alive to see it much longer.”

Noah said the drug court has recently increased the number of people it can serve from 150 to 200. There are currently 162 people participating in it.

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