For Todd Barclay, the Cole County Drug Court was a second chance to have a good life.
The 36-year-old Jefferson City resident, who graduated from the program earlier this month, had struggled for over 10 years to get clean.
"I'd been to rehab and that works for a little while, but the length of time you're in this program helped me," he said. "I failed many times and in the back of my mind I was thinking this was going to be another failure. This time I went in with an open mind."
Barclay grew up playing hockey and had a lot of sports injuries. He took opiates and other pills to get through the pain.
"I was an addict before I knew I was," he said. "I started with the best intentions then I started harming people and it got worse from there."
Barclay is continuing counseling now that he's out of the program. He said it's still possible he'll mess up, but the court program gave him the opportunity to change and he's grateful for it.
"If you really want to change they give you the tools to do it," he said. "I need all the help I can get. You have to want to do the change. They are hard on you at times for a reason. I went in with a lot to lose, family, kids, and so forth so I wanted to make the most of it. I'm grateful to go through this. It changed my way of thinking."
For Larry Henry Jr., the issue of heroin abuse is a personal matter.
When the Cole County Treatment Court Administrator was a youth, he saw the affects of the drug on his family.
"As a young boy I saw my father in our bathroom after he had overdosed on the drug," he said. "My mother tried to get me out of the room, but it is something you never forget."
Fortunately Henry's father went to a treatment program and got cleaned up.
So when Henry hears about the latest rounds of heroin abuse in the community he knows what users and their families are going through.
"What we're starting to see in Cole County is once people go through our drug court, they try to stay clean, but relapse and start using drugs again," he said. "We're telling those going through the court now they have to change their environment if they want to have long term success. They get back in with their old friends and that leads to old patterns and eventually may lead to drug use. Make sure the people around you are supportive, if not you'll have a hard time with your sobriety. Most of those in the court go through in order to get criminal charges dropped, but they need a support system."
Henry recently sat in on a teleconference led by Terrance Walton, who serves as substance abuse treatment director in Washington D.C. He told those in attendance that heroin users are looking for relief from physical and emotional pain, but often find it's still there after they use it.
Walton said older teens and young adults are where the increase in heroin use is taking place, while other illegal drug usage has decreased.
Henry said 18-25 is the age range they see in Cole County.
"Once in the brain, heroin converts to morphine," Walton said. "A tolerance develops and that provides less pain relief."
Judge Pat Joyce holds court every week, but it's not like a normal court. While she talks with participants individually, she also talks to them as a group, often taking questions like in a classroom and trying to get participants to talk about what they are doing as they go through the program.
"Some don't want to take responsibility," Joyce said. "Everyone else is the problem. They want to do drugs more than anything else. We don't want these folks to rely on what others tell them.
"We want them to go out and find out for themselves what they can and can't do."
Currently there are 22 people in the program.
"Typically heroin is the worst drug that we deal with," Henry said. "It's harder to get off of and they may need medical treatment for help. We do have folks who have had problems with marijuana and cocaine, but heroin is the worst. It's the most addictive."
Despite it's addictive nature, Henry believes drug court can help heroin addicts.
"The first few months are the hardest," he said. "It's a very structured program."
Those in the program are there because they have been charged with non-violent cases, usually for drug possession.
"We have a lot of people who have been charged with stealing, thefts, and burglaries," Henry said. "Typically people in those cases are trying to support their habit by committing a crime. If they complete the program they have the opportunity to have the felony dropped."
It typically takes 14-18 months to complete the program.
Henry said 75 to 80 percent of those who go through the program do not repeat. It costs about $3,000 per person to go through the program, which requires participants to do random drug testing 3-4 times a week or more and regularly attend counseling sessions.
Looking to the future, Henry says the drug that is bringing a great deal of concern to authorities is the Crocodile Drug.
"It's a mixture of drugs, but it has the feel of heroin and it's more potent," he said.
"It started in eastern Europe and it's starting to get over into the states. It would be scary if it hits on a wide scale."