Following two highly attended town hall meetings in Carbon and Schuylkill counties, Todd Zimmerman is anxious to see the next step unfold in the battle against drug addiction.

That next step is a pivotal one in helping addicts get on the road to recovery.The Lehigh Carbon Community College adjunct professor met Tuesday night at the St. Peter's Community Resource Center in Franklin Township with members of the Concerned Citizens of Carbon County."What we're working on right now is circulating a petition to establish a drug court in Carbon County," Zimmerman said. "Almost every other county around us has one and we think it's pivotal. If nonviolent offenders can get a job, get that engine running, they'll start to feel better about themselves. We can't keep picking up users and nailing them with felonies. They lose the right to vote, they have a record and it's hard to get any employment. If you want to go after the pushers, that's fine."Drug courts handle only inmates with drug problems. Instead of going through a traditional court, a defendant going through drug court would be kept under supervision and in treatment long enough for that treatment to work. The defendants would also be held accountable for any crimes they have committed, and must meet their obligations to the court, to society, to their families and to themselves.The group, which calls itself 4C, hopes to get 5,000 signatures on the petition and march to the courthouse to present it to Carbon County President Judge Nanovic close to Labor Day."He has to recommend it to the commissioners, who would then need to approve it," Zimmerman said.The petition cites several statistics including that 75 percent of adult criminal drug court graduates never see another pair of handcuffs and drug courts reduce crime by as much as 45 percent when compared to other sentencing options.Zimmerman was joined Tuesday by Cindy Henning, a Jim Thorpe resident who organized the town's National Night Out for four years; Karalyn Dietrich, a Nesquehoning resident and recovered drug addict; and Cindy and Lonnie Kester of Palmerton, who lost their son Lee to an overdose."I was raised to believe that you help people who can't help themselves," Henning said. "That is exactly what drug courts do."Dietrich, who said at a town-hall meeting in December that she's been clean for three years, said she is also in favor of a drug court."A lot of addicts just get run down and don't know how to keep a job every day," she said. "This would get them back into the community as a working person."Art contestAlso on Tuesday, Zimmerman announced the winners of an Opiate Addiction Awareness Poster Contest that was open to high school students in Carbon and Schuylkill counties.Students were asked to create a poster to warn against the overuse of opioid prescriptions.Only Williams Valley, Weatherly, Palmerton and Jim Thorpe participated.Margaret Holloway, Cole Frycklund and Kaitlin Feller, all of Jim Thorpe, finished first through third respectively and received $250, $150 and $75 cash prizes.Holloway's winning artwork featured a syringe filled with pills to show how opioid abuse can lead to heroin addiction.Jim Thorpe National Bank has agreed to print 300 of the posters to be distributed throughout Carbon County.Zimmerman is looking for additional sponsors for the posters. If interested, contact him at

tzimmerman@lccc.edu.