JUST ANOTHER CASUALTY

A Naperville high school senior recently fell victim to the irony of the
drug war. Instead of saving a kid from drugs, the drug war took her life.
Instead of consuming ecstasy--a popular teenage "club drug"--as she
expected, she ingested a powerful amphetamine that killed her in six hours.
Apparently, even the 21-year-old who allegedly provided the teen with the
drug also was fooled--he too thought the drug was ecstasy. How could these
young people not know what drug they were passing and ingesting?

How many hands touched the pills that killed this teen? Did the pills
change hands five times or 10 times? Were they traded for other drugs?
Where they mixed with other pills in a common container? Were they all from
the same batch? The same manufacturer?

A toxicology report, issue posthumously, makes for a poor labeling scheme.
No product labels, no brand names, no warnings.

A teen is dead. The drug provider likely will go to prison. The drug
manufacturer likely will remain anonymous. The local police, school
officials and politicians will assail the evils of drugs. And the drug
war--which prescribed another unsuspected, lethal dose of uncontrolled
drugs--will escape unscathed as it creeps off with immunity in stalk of the
next unsuspecting teen.

James E. Gierach, Oak Lawn