Pubdate: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 Source: Canberra Times (Australia) Copyright: 2000 Canberra Times Contact: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/ Author: Jennifer Saunders Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1404/a03.html DON'T BLAME JUDGES FOR ALL OUR ILLS WHAT is this compulsion with criticising judges for the local ills? Now Jane Craig (Letters, September 8) is making the Chief Justice responsible for exaggerating the incidence of heroin use thereby apparently encouraging other people to use it. I don't know where these people get their information, but I suggest they sit in His Honour's court for a day or two and listen to what really goes on and the true incidence of heroin use among those who come before him. As a criminal lawyer, I can confirm that the incidence is alarmingly high and is an ingredient in a large majority of criminal matters before the courts. The accused might not be the people who live next door to or even in the same house as Ms Craig of MacGregor, but they are the sons and daughters of people she knows and people she works with: there is a heroin epidemic in this country and the ACT is in the centre of it. I don't think that is something the Chief Justice is responsible for. Jennifer Saunders Solicitor, Canberra City - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk