TRENTON, Ga. – North Georgia judicial candidates on Thursday debated the best ways to help drug addicts.
Incumbent Ralph Van Pelt Jr. took the lead-a-horse-to-water technique. You bring a case to court, let the evidence play out, let a jury reach a verdict. If a defendant is guilty, and if that defendant is interested, you sentence him to a state-run substance abuse treatment center – that is, if his insurance or family can’t cover the plan.
“Drug cases are something that are always going to be with us,” he said during a debate Thursday night at the Dade County Public Library. “People continue to get addicted.”
The best way to improve the problem? Van Pelt said the state should fund more substance abuse treatment centers, allowing people to get in faster rather than waiting for a couple of months in jail.
Van Pelt’s challenger, Melissa Hise, believes the court system could be more aggressive. In particular, she pointed to accountability courts, a top priority of outgoing Gov. Nathan Deal. (From 2012-2016, state funding for these courts increased from $2.7 million to $23 million.)