BROOKINGS – Shannon Stuefen graduated from Brookings County Drug Court last Thursday after 17 months in the program. He’d been through treatment three times and to prison twice but couldn’t break his methamphetamine habit until he went into the drug court program.

“I guess I just had to beat myself up bad enough. Somebody really doesn’t want to change until they’ve been beat down into submission, really,” he said. “That’s the way I look at it. I was willing to do whatever because I’m sick of it.”

The start

Stuefen grew up in Brookings and played a lot of sports, including football, basketball, track and wrestling up until his sophomore year.

“I started smoking pot, drinking beer,” he said.

From that, he tried “pretty much everything” until he settled on meth as his drug of choice because he liked the energy it gave him.

Now 41, he says he “pretty much lost everything” to his addiction, including a house and more than one vehicle. A construction worker, he lost a lot of jobs; he’d just get mad and quit, he said.

The one thing he didn’t lose was his family; he still talks to his parents, siblings and grandma. 

He never overdosed, but he had other problems, mostly with the law. 

Stuefen’s gone through 30-day treatment programs three times. He was pulled over on two traffic stops, which resulted in him going to prison for a year and a half the first time and 10 months the second time. 

None of it was enough to make him quit using drugs.

“Addiction’s weird; it kinda takes control of ya. Guess I never really wanted to (quit),” Stuefen said.

Until drug court.

Lessons learned

When Stuefen was pulled over and caught with drugs a third time, he was offered drug court. He wasn’t sure he wanted to accept the program, but after talking with other people who encouraged him to do it, he decided to do it.

“Pretty much tired of the drugs. They’re not doing the same thing they did in the beginning. Going to jail or prison … in trouble with the law, that’s no kind of life to live and the people associated with it are not good people,” he said.

But he still resisted the program.

“Shannon is someone who taught us a lesson,” Magistrate Judge Abigail Howard said at the ceremony.

Brookings County has had a drug court for 2 1/2 years. Stuefen is the seventh graduate. There are currently 15 participants in the program, Howard said.

The participants must face not only their chemical dependency and work on getting and maintaining sobriety, but also overhaul their lives to stay away from the behaviors that draw them into a life of drug abuse, too, she added.

The drug court team was worried about Stuefen because he struggled in the beginning and they were concerned about his attitude; he wasn’t excited about the program, Howard said. 

It wasn’t until he committed to changing his life that he started working the program, Stuefen said.

“I wanted to be clean and sober. I didn’t want that life anymore. I was willing to do whatever it took,” he said.

The drug court team noticed the difference when Stuefen stopped resisting the program and the advice, like moving back to Brookings and getting a local job, said Chad Mansheim, the keynote speaker at the ceremony. He’s been helping with the drug court program almost since the beginning.

Once Stuefen learned to follow the many rules, they could see all the changes in him, Mansheim said.

Stuefen’s been sober for more than 500 days in the program, Howard said. He underwent random urinalysis drug testing 118 times.

Drug court participants are given sanctions for infractions and incentives when they do well. Stuefen finished with zero sanctions and 43 incentives, Howard said.

He was assessed $5,200 in costs and fees by the court but has paid it all back and now owes nothing, Howard said.

“Shannon is someone we can all learn something from,” Howard said.

Stuefen was willing to do the work necessary to get sober, and he still has work to do, said both Mansheim and Pastor Brandon Jorgensen of First Baptist Church in Elkton. 

Jorgensen thinks Stuefen can continue to do that work, citing an old proverb: “A man that has friends must show himself friendly.”

“Always good to have him at the house. The more I’ve got to know Shannon, the more I want to have him around,” Jorgensen said.

Road to recovery

Stuefen feels he is on the road to recovery. 

Drug court is not an easy program, and he did struggle in the beginning until he read some of the program’s literature that advised “stop fighting, so I did,” he said during the ceremony. 

He advises other addicts to follow the program, as well: go to the treatments they tell you, get a job, “stuff that normal people do,” Stuefen said.

The drug court team is strict, but it’s to give participants a better life.

“Being able to be free, be a part of society and make amends with society,” he said is the best part. 

“There’s nothing really bad about it. They don’t do anything to hurt you and you volunteer for it,” he said. “I mean, if you’re not willing to do what they say, then you probably shouldn’t do the program.”

He’s glad he did.

“I actually have money in the bank that I can pay my bills. I’m not struggling and I’m happy,” he said.

“I was trying to blame other people for any problems. (Now) I don’t really have problems; life’s good,” he said.

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.