Sharon, While I don't have a lot of details regarding Scott's personal history, as such, I have a lifetime of experience with TS, the medical system, and the legal system, as well. I spent more than a little time in court and at seminars, as a counsellor, addressing the issues of physical and mental disabilities and the resulting behavior patterns that are engendered by them. I have found that both judges and prosecutors inherently understand the issues themselves, but that defendants rarely have anyone able to effectively speak for them in regard to these issues. The fact of the matter is, the legal system is geared toward 'punishment' as a means of impressing upon people that they need to modify their behavior in order to act within the boundaries required by society. In order for people with special needs to be afforded an opportunity to meet society's requirements, there is an onus upon them to be able to show reasonable cause to the judge as to why a 'generic' solution to the problem they present to society is neither feasible, nor just. As a result of being afflicted with Tourette Syndrome, your son has problems that I am very familiar with, since I have had to deal with the results of the affliction myself for almost a half-century, without proper diagnosis. So I will endeavor to explain some of the life-experiences that I have been through, personally, as a result of this disease's influence on my life. The fact is, I was unjustly charged and convicted of a minor drug offense at the age of 19, for the simple reason that I was 'different' from the other 'suspects', and thus was more suspicious. I was fortunate enough to recognize that I was, indeed, different from others, and that this would be something that would affect my life greatly in the future. The result was that I made an effort to fully understand the intricacies of the law and to take actions to protect myself in the future, no matter whether my actions were in line with societies dictates, or beyond the acceptable boundaries of society. When you are 'different', then you are subject to a much closer scrutiny than the rest of society, and to a much harsher punishment, as a rule. I have spent hours on end at the border crossing near my hometown while customs officials called down the drug dogs from the big city, because I couldn't explain to them why I was 'twitching'. I have spent many days in jail waiting to answer to charges that would later be dismissed because there was no substance to them. I have been subjected to personal debasement and humiliating libel because of various authorities deeming that the manifestations of my disability were signs of my lack of morality, or of evil intentions on my part. You say your son has problems over possessing pills that a friend gave him to try in order to help his TS? My father and mother have given me, over the years, various of their medications to try in order to see if it would help me. They did so because, for all of their care and concern, helping me as much as possible within the 'proper boundaries' of medical science, I was not getting what I needed in order to become a functional human being. My father and mother are respected business people and leading members of the community. They never had to fear getting 'busted' for stepping outside the bounds of society--but I did. I found a drug, amphetamine, that helped me to become a functional member of society, but I was subject to arrest and imprisonment if I got caught possessing it. After over three decades of occasional 'illegal' use of the drug, it is now prescribed for my by a doctor who is allowed to do so because it is now a 'recognized' treatment for TS. But, from a legal standpoint, I was supposed to forego use of the drug and lead a more dysfunctional life. DWI's? The most functional period of my life was spent self-medicating with alcohol and nicotine. I acted as president of a small computer company while smoking a carton of cigarettes a day and drinking a case (24) of beer a day. It made me functional. I put on 30-50,000 miles a year, accident free, and there were times that I would not drive if I didn't have my 'medicine/beer' because I didn't feel it was safe to do so. I had the foresight to buy my own breathalyzer so that I could guage my drinking according to the legal standard, but I did so only for legal reasons, not for reasons of safety. Public intoxication? I was recently 'forced' to show up in court in a state of legally defined 'public intoxication' in order not to be locked in a cage like an animal as a result of my disabilities. I missed a court appearance because the prescribed medications I was taking could not get me onto the 'day schedule' required by the legal system. Under threat of imprisonment for failing to show up at the next court date, I spent the previous night imbibing my 'old faithful' medication, Scotch. I had a friend drive me to court, and I drank Scotch and Coke while pleading my case (which I won). I had no desire to 'break the law'. I did not have an 'attitude problem'. I was not trying to 'flaunt the rules of society'. I was trying to survive. I was trying to keep from being locked in a cage for not being able to function according to society's wishes without performing actions which also went against society's wishes, but which would enable me to avoid 'punishment', nonetheless. I take it that Scott is 'hiding out' to avoid being locked in a cage for violating the rules of society. I have spent a great deal of my life 'hiding out' so that I would not have to come into contact with society and be punished for trying to survive while not fitting into the common mold. There have been times when I was forced to 'hide out' from showing up in court to answer this-or-that charge which I knew would be dismissed if I could hold out until I was functional enough to deal with the situation. I had the foresight and the knowledge to do so using the same 'techniques' as a lawyer who isn't ready to plead a case because he stayed up too late drinking the night before. I 'fudged' the truth, as lawyers do every day, but I did so in order to compensate for a dysfunctionality which was very real, but undiagnosed and therefore unrecognized by the legal system. I have been blessed enough in life to have 'escaped' many situations which could have turned out badly for me, by virtue of learning at a young age that I needed to institute my own methods of dealing with a dysfunctionality which I recognized, but which, in many ways, remained a mystery to me. I have also been blessed by having the extreme good fortune to have encountered a number of judges and prosecutors who were truly concerned about justice, and who had the ability to judge me as a human being, and take into account the fact that I was being honest with them about my attitude, intentions and circumstances, even when my outward actions or appearance did not correspond to what they were used to seeing in 'normal' people. And I have been blessed to be able to make a difference in the lives of others by pleading their case to those in authority over them, when they were unable to effectively do so themselves. During my years as a consellor and court-appointed advisor, I was only vaguely aware that I understood the circumstances of the people I was helping to defend because I shared their disabilities and their dysfunctionality. In regard to Scott, I don't know him personally, but the trials and tribulations that you have shared on the pov-twitch forum are not foreign to me, as they mirror my own life in many ways. What I would say to a judge and a prosecutor who are charged with the duty of protecting both society and the individual, is this: 1. Please have the compassion and the wisdom to take a close look at Scott as a human being, and seriously consider what special circumstances may be raised by the fact that he is afflicted with a medical condition that affects his life in ways that he has little control over. 2. Try to make a distinction between actions, behaviors and attitudes that are a result of a 'bad attitude' or a 'criminal intent', and the actions, behaviors and attitudes of an individual who is trying desperately to survive in a world in which he is ill-equipped to function as a result of his disabilities. 3. Please make an attempt to review his past history of involvement with the legal system with an eye toward recognizing that perhaps the judgements made about him, and the resulting legal decisions regarding the disposition of his cases, did not fully take into account his physical and mental disabilities and thus did not reflect the best course of resolution of his case for the greatest benefit of both society and the individual himself. (The Tourette-support forums regularly contain postings by loving and concerned parents who are horrified by the mistaken judgements--and resulting punishments-they made concerning their children before they came to realize that their child had physical and mental disabilities which required them to view his or her actions in a new light, and find unique solutions for the problems that these disabilities presented.) 4. Keep in mind the fact that resistance to authority and the tendency to 'flee' from the face of society are common traits among many who suffer from Tourette Syndrome and its accompanying afflictions. (I posted a message to pov-twitch in which I spoke of feeling like a "hunted animal" for much of my life, and I received a huge outpouring of responses from TS-adults which reflected the pain and fear that they still carried inside of themselves as a result of a lifetime of persecution for the 'small sin' of being different from those around them.) 5. Please realize that you are judging an individual, whose future lies in your hands, who has a genuine need for special understanding in order to bring his case to a resolution which will benefit society and the individual himself. It is easy to recognize the special circumstances and needs necessary to dispense true justice in the case of the 'obviously' and the 'acceptably' disabled. When one is confronted with a retarded individual, or a person in a wheel-chair, the special circumstances regarding the disposition of their case are obvious. When judging a person who is rambling on disjointedly about the voices in his or her head, and truly hears them, then the need to take this into consideration is equally obvious. It is much more difficult to put Tourette Syndrome-type behaviors and attitudes into proper perspective, and to judge the part they play in an individuals actions and behaviors. TS traits encompass ADHD and OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), and a variety of 'borderline' dysfunctionalities which result in actions and behaviors which are easy to classify as 'willful', 'disrespectful', etc. (Children who won't sit still in their chairs; who utter obscenities; who perform impulsive actions based on irrational, illogical thought processes.) I recognize that there are certain instances in which society's interest is best served by locking up an individual so that they do not do irrepairable harm to others, but if this concept is extended to the point where it becomes the preferred method of dealing with psychological disabilities, out of convenience, then I feel that justice is no longer being served. Society, in return for abridging the rights of an individual to act in any manner that he or she pleases, also takes on the responsibility to ensure that the individual will not unduly suffer as a result of the dictates of society. If society chooses to judge Scott for stepping outside the boundaries of its rule of law, then society must ensure that Scott is afforded the opportunity to gain the medical assistance that he needs in order to deal with his disabilities within the bounds of society's laws. Imprisonment is hardly likely to be a solution that will result in changes to Scott's medical disabilities. If the legal system is not able to propose an alternative to imprisonment, then what hope is there, really, for anyone who is engaged in a daily battle to overcome the trials, tribulations and stigmatism associated with the affliction of Tourette Syndrome. I wish you and Scott all the best in dealing with his present situation, and I hope that you are blessed with a judge who understands that society is composed of individuals and that, in judging the individual, he or she is judging society itself. Love, Toto