By Cynthia Price
Legal News
Judge Torresen (shown at top right with her mother Fran), now the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maine, spoke on the opioid crisis and what her federal court is doing to help people with addictions who have committed crimes which have brought them before her.
Torresen was raised in Muskegon, went to Hope College and then University of Michigan Law School, where she was editor of the Michigan Law Review — no small feat, as Hackley Public Library Board President Kevin Huss (shown bottom right), former Muskegon County Bar Association President, noted in his introduction. She formerly attended Mona Shores High School and, Huss said, was voted class clown. She clerked for a judge in Maine and returned there to work in the U.S. Attorney’s office for 21 years before becoming the first female judge in the Maine federal court’s history.
She started out with the brutal statistics. In Maine, whose population at 1.3 million is roughly equal to Muskegon, Kent Ottawa and Kalamazoo counties, there were 376 deaths from drug overdoses last year. Twenty years ago there were 34. The state, as the nation, has seen a large uptick in opioid-related deaths in the last five years. That trend continues despite the recent increased use of the counter-drug Narcan, which blocks the effects of such opioids as heroin, oxycodone, fentanyl, and similar substances. (In Maine, Narcan was used almost 2400 times during 2016.)
In Maine, more people died of overdoses than car accidents.
There are other human costs as well, including drug-addicted newborns and neglected children.
Torresen addressed the causes of the epidemic use of opioids. “You may remember in the 1990s there was a lot of talk about under-treated pain, and doctors were being encouraged to prescribe various opioids in drastically increased numbers. The pharmaceutical companies played a role in that,” she said.
When doctors cut back on the prescriptions - either because they saw abuse or because it was what they always intended to do - people took to the streets. The opioid pills are very expensive to buy illegally, but heroin was readily available.
Unfortunately, there are no controls on the purity or any of the content of street heroin. Sometimes it is mixed with fentanyl or even stronger narcotics to make it even cheaper. Therefore, more street drug sales likely mean more overdoses.
The epidemic, of course, has many additional causes and is highly complex, but whatever the reason, people are more likely to commit crimes, feel their lives are out of control, and become suicidal (as many high-profile recent deaths indicate).
So, what is to be done?
One solution that seems to work for more people than others is the drug court, the centerpiece of the trend to specialty or problem-solving courts.
Michigan law defines drug treatment courts as “...a court supervised treatment program for individuals who abuse or are dependent upon any controlled substance or alcohol.”
Under normal circumstances, drug and other specialty courts are the province of the more local jurisdictions — in Michigan the state district and occasionally circuit courts. The Michigan Supreme Court, which oversees those courts, is justifiably proud of having a number of drug treatment courts.
The court’s webpage reads, “Michigan has been a pioneer in the drug treatment court movement. There are currently 84 drug treatment courts in Michigan, consisting of 32 adult drug courts, 23 DWI courts, 15 juvenile drug courts, 11 family dependency courts, and 3 tribal healing-to-wellness courts.”
Rarely is such a program undertaken by the federal courts, though it is becoming more common.
As Judge Torresen pointed out, there is another dimension to such courts. “What drug court gives you is this accountability, this authority figure you have to see every two weeks,” she said.
The SWiTCH program, which Judge Torresen oversees, provides not only the incentive of avoiding penalties such as going back to prison, but also expanded support and a lot of structure. Even the need to report about what has happened between court visits has a positive effect, forcing the participant to reflect on progress.
Participants must undergo both group and individual therapy, including cognitive behavioral therapy. Different kinds of counseling address different needs; for example, Torresen said, women who have experienced sexual abuse or other trauma will have that specific therapy.
After the year-long program is successfully completed, the U.S. District Court in Maine, similar to other state courts, holds a graduation ceremony complete with a certificate and usually, cake.
But the real reward for those few who finish is a life free of guilt and shame, and the ability to make their own choices.
“Brick by brick they build a foundation for a better life,” Judge Torresen said.
Her lecture, given in the Muskegon Museum of Art Auditorium, was followed by a reception at Hackley Library.
The purpose of the Hackley Distinguished Lecture series, now in its 36th year, is threefold: to honor a distinguished person with ties to the Muskegon area — and therefore make clear what great people we have produced; to embody the principles that Hackley Library and its founder incorporated in its creation, that is, the “humanities” (such as art, philosophy, and the social sciences) and to present an expert speaker on a topic of importance.
It would be hard to think of anything more pressing than the subject of Judge Nancy Torresen’s lecture last week.
Judge Torresen (shown at top right with her mother Fran), now the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maine, spoke on the opioid crisis and what her federal court is doing to help people with addictions who have committed crimes which have brought them before her.
Torresen was raised in Muskegon, went to Hope College and then University of Michigan Law School, where she was editor of the Michigan Law Review — no small feat, as Hackley Public Library Board President Kevin Huss (shown bottom right), former Muskegon County Bar Association President, noted in his introduction. She formerly attended Mona Shores High School and, Huss said, was voted class clown. She clerked for a judge in Maine and returned there to work in the U.S. Attorney’s office for 21 years before becoming the first female judge in the Maine federal court’s history.
Judge Torresen is an excellent, thoughtful speaker whose judicial temperament might tend to downplay the shock of the painful story she told.
She started out with the brutal statistics. In Maine, whose population at 1.3 million is roughly equal to Muskegon, Kent Ottawa and Kalamazoo counties, there were 376 deaths from drug overdoses last year. Twenty years ago there were 34. The state, as the nation, has seen a large uptick in opioid-related deaths in the last five years. That trend continues despite the recent increased use of the counter-drug Narcan, which blocks the effects of such opioids as heroin, oxycodone, fentanyl, and similar substances. (In Maine, Narcan was used almost 2400 times during 2016.)
Last year across the U.S. there were approximately 52,400 reported deaths from drug overdose (though not all were traced to abuse of opioids). Torresen compared that to the AIDS epidemic, which at its height took 50,786 lives.
In Maine, more people died of overdoses than car accidents.
There are other human costs as well, including drug-addicted newborns and neglected children.
Torresen addressed the causes of the epidemic use of opioids. “You may remember in the 1990s there was a lot of talk about under-treated pain, and doctors were being encouraged to prescribe various opioids in drastically increased numbers. The pharmaceutical companies played a role in that,” she said.
Because these drugs are highly addictive, physicians soon had a problem on their hands: someone who was given oxycontin to address, for example, after-surgery acute pain might end up with an addiction that he or she could not walk away from.
When doctors cut back on the prescriptions - either because they saw abuse or because it was what they always intended to do - people took to the streets. The opioid pills are very expensive to buy illegally, but heroin was readily available.
Unfortunately, there are no controls on the purity or any of the content of street heroin. Sometimes it is mixed with fentanyl or even stronger narcotics to make it even cheaper. Therefore, more street drug sales likely mean more overdoses.
The epidemic, of course, has many additional causes and is highly complex, but whatever the reason, people are more likely to commit crimes, feel their lives are out of control, and become suicidal (as many high-profile recent deaths indicate).
So, what is to be done?
One solution that seems to work for more people than others is the drug court, the centerpiece of the trend to specialty or problem-solving courts.
Michigan law defines drug treatment courts as “...a court supervised treatment program for individuals who abuse or are dependent upon any controlled substance or alcohol.”
Under normal circumstances, drug and other specialty courts are the province of the more local jurisdictions — in Michigan the state district and occasionally circuit courts. The Michigan Supreme Court, which oversees those courts, is justifiably proud of having a number of drug treatment courts.
The court’s webpage reads, “Michigan has been a pioneer in the drug treatment court movement. There are currently 84 drug treatment courts in Michigan, consisting of 32 adult drug courts, 23 DWI courts, 15 juvenile drug courts, 11 family dependency courts, and 3 tribal healing-to-wellness courts.”
Rarely is such a program undertaken by the federal courts, though it is becoming more common.
As Judge Torresen pointed out, there is another dimension to such courts. “What drug court gives you is this accountability, this authority figure you have to see every two weeks,” she said.
The SWiTCH program, which Judge Torresen oversees, provides not only the incentive of avoiding penalties such as going back to prison, but also expanded support and a lot of structure. Even the need to report about what has happened between court visits has a positive effect, forcing the participant to reflect on progress.
Participants must undergo both group and individual therapy, including cognitive behavioral therapy. Different kinds of counseling address different needs; for example, Torresen said, women who have experienced sexual abuse or other trauma will have that specific therapy.
After the year-long program is successfully completed, the U.S. District Court in Maine, similar to other state courts, holds a graduation ceremony complete with a certificate and usually, cake.
But the real reward for those few who finish is a life free of guilt and shame, and the ability to make their own choices.
“Brick by brick they build a foundation for a better life,” Judge Torresen said.
Her lecture, given in the Muskegon Museum of Art Auditorium, was followed by a reception at Hackley Library.
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