To me it sounds pretty much like the court sent him to Narcotics Anonymous and he got clean there. The sober living house had him pee in a cup to verify he was staying clean and that's about it.
The article has a link to another article that's more focused on the notion of a "drug court" [1] itself. I hadn't heard of the term either, but from the sound of it, the drug court runs / oversees a highly-structured program that's focused on addicts and that takes place outside of a prison. So it sounds like it's more than just "go to a sober living house, and let them enforce rules" and more of a probation-like situation.
