ADDICTS NEED QUALITY TREATMENT AND SUPPORT

To the Editor:

Thank you for running Clarence Page's recent column, ''Like Noelle, addicts
need help, not jail.'' (Sept. 18) Supporting treatment rather than
incarceration for alcoholics and drug addicts is often erroneously
considered a soft position with the intention of letting addicts off the
hook.

With quality treatment the opposite is true: Recovery from chemical
dependence has nothing to do with ''getting off the hook,'' and everything
to do with stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for our lives.

Thom Rutledge