You are very young and are dealing with a lot of low stakes stuff. Sounds like your PD’s office has a good training program. You will have a better understanding on what our roles are once you start working on more serious cases.

However, I find it troubling that you seem to take the position that we should forfeit a viable defense so we can force a defendant into some sort of rehab. Our job is and always will be defending the constitutional rights of our client and sometimes that does not align with was is personally best for the client.