Practice areas · 7 / 12

Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is not a character flaw. It is a condition, and it reaches every kind of family: the professional who cannot stop drinking, the student who started with a prescription, the parent who has fought the same battle for twenty years. Nearly everyone knows someone, and many of us have been that someone. Addiction drives a large share of the cases that come through Arizona’s criminal courts, from possession and DUI to theft and violent offenses, and treating the addiction does more to prevent the next case than any sentence can.

Arizona law recognizes this. A first or second conviction for personal possession generally carries probation and treatment rather than prison, and diversion programs and drug courts exist for exactly this reason. Ms. Jakobe puts those tools to work. She gets clients into treatment early, because a client who is in recovery by the time the case is resolved stands in a far stronger position with the prosecutor and the court, and she makes sure the judge sees the whole story: the addiction, the effort, and the person underneath it. Nothing a client tells her about their use is met with judgment. It is met with a plan.