Many times people calling are worried about their loved ones legal situation and whether or not they can go to treatment. The answer is yes, and nothing is more confusing than an attorney, uneducated in the field of addiction, telling them that they can’t leave for treatment out of state. In all the years of doing intervention and sending people to treatment 
centers across the country, never once has a judge or a prosecutor taken action against someone bettering themselves and getting medical attention for a potentially fatal problem, especially when they are accounted for and the court is aware of their location and progress in treatment. Attorneys always say they have to be in court because they don’t want to have to do any more work and they want to make sure they get paid. Your loved one is 10 times more likely to get in more trouble and violate probation from a new arrest or positive drug test because they are still drinking or drugging than they are likely to get in trouble for entering a treatment program and helping themselves. If we leave it up to the court to decide the treatment center choice it will just be some local outpatient, 21 or 28 day facility that is state funded and ineffective where your loved one is going to meet other people who are not serious about getting better and discuss where to get better drugs and how to beat the system. In all the years we have never once seen anyone wait for their court date and continue to get drunk or high, take the advice of their lawyer and not to go to treatment and end up better, in fact they all end up in jail. We are not advising you to disrespect a judge or prosecutor, we are just advising you that your loved one is far better off in treatment than waiting for a court date while they are getting drunk or high. The worst thing that can happen, but never has with us, is your loved one could get a violation from their probation officer for leaving the state that the judge and prosecutor would overturn anyway and would be a far lesser charge than a positive drug test or a new arrest.
Is Intervention Legal?
Many people think that intervention is about taking someone to treatment against their will, with force or by police. Intervention is absolutely legal and we don’t take anyone anywhere against their will, in fact we don’t even coerce or give ultimatums. An interventionist gives the addicted person a choice to go and get help or to do things totally on their own. The last thing you ever want to do is have someone forced in treatment or committed against their will and should only be used as a last resort. Addicts and alcoholics number one problem is resentment towards others while lacking all ownership of the problem. By having someone taken against their will you are only creating more hostility and resentment within them and pushing them away, not bringing them closer. Having someone committed should only be considered after all options have been exhausted during the intervention and the person is going to be a danger to themselves or others. With intervention we only take people to treatment once we have obtained their willingness to go and this willingness will only come from the family coming together as a team to stop the insanity of the addiction.