A Texas drug charge can affect many areas of your life, including your finances, your ability to hold down a job and even your personal or familial relationships. However, if your drug offense was not a violent one and you have a genuine desire to overcome your substance dependency, you may want to consider exploring your options and seeing if a Texas drug court might be a good fit for you.
Per the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Hidalgo is one of many counties across Texas that maintains an active drug court program.
How the program works
You should expect some variation in terms of how each drug court operates from one county to the next. However, most require that you take regular drug tests, complete substance abuse treatment, make regular appearances before a judge or court administrator, and uphold other compliance requirements throughout the program’s duration. Texas drug court programs typically last between a year and 18 months, depending on circumstances.
How the program impacts your drug charge
If you participate in drug court as a pretrial program and complete it successfully, your case should undergo dismissal. This means you should be able to avoid any jail or prison time that might have been part of your original sentence, had the judge not dropped your charge.
Studies show that drug courts are highly effective. While they often help offenders overcome their substance dependencies, they also help reduce recidivism or the number of criminal offenders who reenter the criminal justice system after navigating their way through it.