Strong drug treatment courts are seen as a way to battle the opioid epidemic which has started to take more lives in Texas, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Sheri Lockman, who founded the group 'Foster America,' to help orphaned and abandoned children find homes. She says specialized courts to handle family issues were a big help in getting these kids into a better place.
"This is not our first rodeo," she said. "In the eighties and nineties we saw the crack cocaine epidemic."
Lockman said the specialized drug courts, which were pioneered in Bexar County, took drug use out of the purely criminal arena, and allowed judges to help children of crack addicted parents. She says the same thing can happen today, because only the drug has changed.
"Some of the most effective family based drug treatment programs were started during the crack cocaine epidemic."
Lockman says parental drug addiction is the reason behind two thirds of Child Protective Services removals of children from homes.