Chippewa Co. 50th Circuit Court celebrates 10 years of Adult Drug Court and how it changes lives

“Throughout my 20s I started getting in trouble, I started getting arrested for drug related crimes and I’d go to jail and I’d get out and I’d use again.”

That’s the cycle 31-year-old Trevor Mounts was in for a decade. Mounts grew up on the Sault Ste. Marie Reservation.

“My drug use started when I was about 14 years old,” said Trevor. “When my mom was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, I kind of acted out.”

Trevor says he graduated high school and worked at Kewadin Casino, but was still in active use.

“I started using pills at first,” he said. “I was just using them and it gave me like a good feeling, you know. And then after a while I started just needing it to go to work or to get out of bed in the morning. That’s how bad it got for a while.”

31 year old Kiley Grondin says she doesn’t remember most of her childhood.

“I started using at the age of 8,” said Kiley. “I started using after seeing my older brother use my mom’s prescriptions. She had multiple neck and back surgeries when I was a kid. The first time I went to rehab, I was 12.”

Kiley said she’s had periods of sobriety throughout her life, but they were never long.

“My last, I’d say, “drug of choice” would be meth,” she said. “I was consistently doing at least a minimum of a gram of meth a day for 3 to 4 years.”

For Kiley, she reached a point where she realized she needed help.

“I got multiple charges thrown on me in different counties, and I lost my kids to CPS and I had to fight for them back,” she said. “I lost everything. My job, my house, my vehicle, and realized, you know, enough’s enough.”

Trevor and Kiley’s stories are similar to thousands of Michiganders who suffer from substance abuse disorder.

That’s where the Chippewa County Adult Drug Court comes in.

It was started back in 2014 as a resource for non-violent drug offenders in the county to help them get sober and stay sober.

After an initial planning grant from 2015 to 2016, the program became fully operational in 2017.

“Once I really getting to know the people and started dealing with their families and them, you realize these are just really good people trying to get their lives together,” said 50th Circuit Court Drug Coordinator Mick Leppien.

Lippien says it’s not an easy program by any means.

“They do the leg work, and we just try to keep them pointed in the right direction,” Leppien said. “A lot of them have never had positive reinforcement in their life, and this is one of the times in their life where they’re going to get a whole team rooting you on, and they want good things for them.”

There are three phases participants must complete before being eligible to graduate.

Each phase has certain requirements - like attending AA or NA meetings, coming to court sessions, getting a full time job, and finding a stable place to live.

“We help them change their friends, help them with their living situation, jobs. We require them to work, which gives them a positive reinforcement. We help them get housing,” Leppien said. “Just help them build their family back, if they have family and friends. Just very positive people in their lives.”

Since its start in 2014 - 40 people have graduated. Of those 40 people, only two have been re-arrested for drug or alcohol crimes.

41 year old Nicole Fountain says she heard lots about the program before becoming a participant herself.

“I had a woman tell me she was seven years sober and she wouldn’t be able to complete the program,” Nicole said. “It was a little scary.”

But Nicole said once she started on the routine, the program participants and the team felt like family.

“When the new ones come into the program, we kind of embrace them,” she said. We tell them that it’s not as hard as you think. It’s nice to have those other ones that have been in the program longer as guidance to help you.”

Now, Nicole is one and a half years sober, Kiley is one year sober, and Trevor is 22 months sober.

All of them have big plans for the future.

“Right now, I’m taking online classes at Bay Mills Community College,” said Nicole. “I want to go in to counseling or be a recovery coach field myself.”

Kiley is also looking into going to college.

“I will be a certified peer recovery coach,” she said.

Trevor, meanwhile, still has a while left in the Adult Drug Court program, but it’s the little steps day-by-day that keep him going.

“I’m in phase three right now, and that’s the last phase in drug court,” he said. “I’d say maybe next year. But I’m going to keep on the routine I got right now. It’s a pretty good routine.”

They want anyone struggling with addiction to know -- help is out there.

“I wouldn’t be alive right now if it wasn’t for this program,” Trevor said. “I’d either be dead or in prison watching this.”

“Once you get a little bit of sobriety under your belt, it’s amazing how many windows and doors open up, and how you see so much clearer,” said Nicole.

“It was my kids, it was people who were looking up to me and people who were counting on me to get better,” Kiley said. “When I couldn’t care about myself, and do it for myself, I was doing it for them.”

For resources on substance abuse disorder click here , and for more information on the Chippewa County 50th Circuit Court Adult Drug Court, click here .