Solicitor’s office to use grant money to expand drug treatment court in Horry County

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) - A program to help people grappling with drug addiction has doubled in the last few years, and new funds may be able to help it continue to help more people.

“Drug court is not just about the treatment of the addiction, but it is all of those structural things,” said 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson. “The friend group that they’ve got, the work aspect of it, the family life, to make sure that that is all built up, so that the person, when they go away, has a chance to remain sober.”

For sixteen years, the solicitor’s office has offered treatment court as an alternative to jail time for people who have committed drug-related offenses.

Richardson says 800 people have graduated from the program in those 16 years. Participants have less than a 15% chance of re-offending.

“The counseling and all of that is all in-house, you know, we hire counselors to visit with them,” said Richardson. “We hire peer specialists to make sure that they’re drug testing three times a week, we make sure that everybody’s got a job, that they are employed.”

But right now, Richardson says the program only has three counselors and one peer specialist, and more than 80 people are enrolled.

“We are basically using the same staff that we had ten years ago,” said Richardson.

A grant from the South Carolina Attorney General’s office will allow them to add one more counselor. The grant will be over $100,000 for the next 17 years.

Richardson says these counselors are vital to the program’s success, even though they are tough on their patients.

“It’s a tough relationship, but it is one of caring, and it’s one that people can understand once they get out from under the physical addiction of the drugs and start rationally thinking through it,” said Richardson.

Richardson added that after 17 years, Horry County will continue to fund the counselor position once the grant runs out.

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