SHOW ADDICTED VET SOME COMPASSION

The Mercury News story (Page 1A, March 24) about the VA's misdiagnosis
of U.S. Army Captain Sargent Binkley tragically puts his future in the
hands of our criminal justice system. Prosecutors told your reporter
"(we) have to treat Binkley the same as any drug addict who holds up a
drug store and tells a hard-luck story." But prosecutors are not
bureaucrats devoid of responsibility - where is the good judgment we
all expect of professionals? This young man was struggling with an
addiction to painkillers as a result of a VA prescription. Did he have
a prior criminal record or gang history or multiple arrests or violent
involvement or time in juvenile hall? Apparently not. Treating this
young man the same as any druggie with a hard-luck story and sending
him to prison for 12 years would be an outrageous and intolerable
miscarriage of justice.

David A.G. Deacon,

Los Altos