Dear Editor,

The Times News did a good job reporting on a recent confab involving several Carbon County judges and certain organizations over the alarming rate of drug-related criminal cases appearing before the local judiciary.One particular quotation in the article, attributed to a local sitting judge, seems to sum up the general sentiment of this conference and cannot go unchallenged: "It's disheartening when you have all these people coming before you because (emphasis added) they have a problem and need help."Contrary to what the judge said, the drug addicts standing before him are not in his courtroom because they are drug addicts in need of help. More often than not, they are there because they are drug addicts who are themselves drug dealers, or have either robbed, or burgled, or otherwise stolen from someone else to support their addictions.These people are not victims, they are criminal defendants formally accused of crimes. Otherwise, they wouldn't be there in the first place.That indisputable fact seems to have been overlooked or dismissed in the discussions held in this conference.It's sad, but the idyllic and wholesome days of Mayberry

R.F.D. are a thing of the past.The criminal justice system in our local communities today is being put to the test by the narcotics scourge, just as it has in most other American communities from coast to coast. There is no choice but to adapt and adjust just to keep from being overwhelmed.However, it would be a grave mistake to view this problem through rose-colored glasses as many of those in attendance at this conference seem to be doing.To do so is to repeat the same failed social experiments of other American communities, and end up throwing good taxpayer money after bad.L. Ernie FoucaultKresgeville