Drug Court saved Clark Dagnall’s life.
In return, the 26-year-old Sand Springs resident took the stage at the program’s most recent graduation and promised to pay it forward by helping others.
“My goal is just to help the next addict,” he told the crowd of graduates’ friends and family members. “Maybe I can get through to somebody that nobody else could.”
He was among 54 drug, DUI, special needs and veterans treatment court defendants who were recognized at a ceremony Friday for completing the nearly two-year program.
“Graduating Drug Court — for a while I didn’t think it was going to happen, but, like I said, it saved my life,” Dagnall said.
He delved into his story and shared his journey to and through Drug Court with the hundreds of people gathered in the auditorium of Oklahoma State University’s Tulsa campus.
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“My mom ended up passing away right after I graduated (high school), and it messed me up pretty bad, so I started using a lot,” Dagnall said.
He had been arrested for driving under the influence in the year before his mother’s death as his family was faced with her failing health.
After she died, he began forging prescriptions and eventually received a deferred sentence on charges in Creek County. He was then charged with two counts of attempting to obtain a controlled drug by a forged or altered prescription in Tulsa County in 2010.
“Apparently you have to go to college for a long time” to write prescriptions, Dagnall joked, eliciting laughter from the crowd.
He faced prison time but was instead chosen to participate in Drug Court.
Dagnall and other graduates who spoke credited their success to the support and guidance they received in the program, while Drug Court staff expressed their pride in the graduates.
“We watch these individuals transform and rise from the ashes,” said Lawrence Gilbert, Action Steps Counseling program coordinator.
