“Remember today, for it is the beginning of always…”
Such true words for five men and women who celebrated completing the drug court program last week.
Two Estill Countians were among the groups who graduated from the Lee, Owsley and Estill County Drug Court program Thursday, May 30.
Drug Court programs are for eligible individuals with drug addiction. For a minimum of one year, drug court participants go through a rigorous recovery program in lieu of traditional justice system processes.
Through completing the program, individuals are taught how to reduce drug use and crime while saving money and reuniting with their families.
Dustin Willis and Stacy Daily each received a plaque signaling their graduation from the local drug court program as well as a certificate naming them Kentucky Colonels.
Pictured (L to R): Derek Collier, Craig Pack, Megan Becknell, Stacy Dailey and Dustin Willis graduated from the Estill, Lee and Owsley County Drug Court program last week. They are pictured with Estill County Circuit Judge Tom Jones and David Tapp, circuit judge for Lincoln, Pulaski and Rockcastle counties.
As Estill County Circuit Court Judge Tom Jones said, the graduates were celebrating much more than just completing the program.
“Today you are here to celebrate your recovery,” he said.
Circuit Court Judge David A. Tapp, who serves Lincoln, Pulaski and Rockcastle counties, was the guest speaker. He shared a similar message with the graduates.
“We’re not really here to celebrate that they passed over 100 drug tests or that they completed 1,200 hours of community service or hardly missed a counseling session,” he said. “These are important statistics. But the real measure of your success is told in your eyes, your daily actions, and it’s certainly told by that, through this recovery, we can tell you’re doing good.”
He encouraged the graduates to continue using the things they learned in the drug court program in their everyday lives.
“Drug Court teaches what has always been a truth,” he said. “We all make mistakes. We must all answer for our mistakes. And always, the answer comes from within us.”
He described how different this trip to a court room was than all the others in their lives. He used the layout of the courtroom as a metaphor for the things drug court forced them do, namely looking at themselves in a different way.
“The layout of this courtroom compels you to look forward,” he said. “It commands that you look from the outside in to where the ugly stories of our lives are examined and then judged.”
He said drug court has caused the graduates to do something similar.
“You are looking inward to find the motivation to live a clean and sober life,” he said.
He told the graduates the most important thing is that they have made their families, their friends and themselves proud through completing the program.
Also graduating from the program were Megan Becknell of Owsley County, Craig Pack of Lee County and Derek Collier of Lee County.