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