A paper chain with the initials of the first 1,000 graduates of West Virginia’s adult and juvenile drug courts is held by drug program founder Judge Martin Gaughan, left, Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, and Senate President Bill Cole.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Drug court graduates, their family and friends and state officials gathered for a Tuesday ceremony honoring the first 1,000 people to successfully complete the state’s adult and juvenile drug court programs.
West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and Senate President Bill Cole, R-Mercer, spoke to graduates in the ceremony at the Capitol and helped unfurl a paper chain with the initials of graduates scrawled on each link.
“Substance abuse is a heartbreaking problem facing West Virginians,” Tomblin said in the ceremony. “Substance abuse has touched all of us in one way or another.”
Benjamin said the program has been going on for 10 years with the first adult drug court, serving Brooke, Hancock and Ohio counties, established in 2005. Establishment of the state’s first juvenile drug court followed in 2007.
Now, there are 24 adult drug court programs serving 40 counties and 16 juvenile drug court programs serving 20 counties with 581 people actively participating…