Severity of Substance Use Problems Reported By Drug Court Clients

"In general, suburban and urban courts serve populations with significantly more severe drug use problems than rural drug courts. Table 2-2.8 shows that nearly 40 percent of urban drug courts and approximately 30 percent of suburban drug courts serve populations of primarily severe cocaine/crack, heroin, or methadone dependent users compared with only 10 percent of rural drug courts. In addition, just over 9 percent of rural drug courts serve populations with primarily mild dependencies compared with only 3.5 percent of urban drug courts and 4.4 percent of suburban drug courts. Rural drug courts are also most likely to serve a mix of people with mild and severe dependencies (80.7 percent). As mentioned above and consistent with the information in Table 2.8, rural and suburban drug courts are significantly more likely than urban programs to admit participants to the program for marijuana abuse only."