Lots of people think Obama hasn’t changed anything on the drug war front (Bill Maher is one of them, but who can blame him – drug policy isn’t exactly hot media stuff). But it turns out that PolitiFact is giving Obama a “promise kept” on this one. They write, “(T)he administration has supported drug courts, which allow low-level drug offenders to have their charges dropped if they successfully complete a court-monitored treatment program.”

Thus we have the “drug courts” which operate mostly at the state and local level.

There are approximately 2,700 drug courts. The administration estimates that we are now sending about 120,000 people to treatment instead of jail. That’s a lot of drug users who would have been languishing in jail, where they don’t get help and often don’t belong. President Obama requested $13 million more for drug courts and treatment in 2013 than he did in 2012.