TEENS IN THE DRUG WAR

One of the more heartbreaking episodes of World War II came when Hitler,
toward the end of a war he knew he was losing, sent teen-age boys into
battle against seasoned and better-equipped Allied troops. The memory of
those young boys, doomed to failure and almost certain death, haunted many
American soldiers for years after the war was over.

Can it be that we have come to a similar pass in the drug war?

Law enforcement officials insist that it is rare to convert teen-agers
caught on drug charges into undercover informants or participants in
undercover drug-buying operations. Orange County Deputy District Attorney
Carl Armbrust, supervisor of the office's drug enforcement unit, says he
can recall only a few involved, saying they would find it difficult to
condone such practices.

But using teen-agers undercover is not against state law, and it does
happen. There seems to be little question that the Brea police, who handle
policing for Yorba Linda, used Chad MacDonald, just short of his 18th
birthday, that way after MacDonald was caught with methamphetamines in
January.

Now Chad MacDonald is dead, having been tortured and murdered after going
to a house in Norwalk apparently known for drug-dealing. The Brea police
say he didn't do it at their behest, but his mother says Chad thought a
"big buy" would be the key to pleasing the police and getting his own
charges handled.

We may never know the absolute truth about this particular murder, but we
do know a couple of things: Teen-agers should not be used in such a
dangerous way. But as long as authorities insist on waging a "war on
drugs," police agencies will be tempted to do so.

To make drug arrests and get convictions, the police often must penetrate
private places, often in the face of extraordinary efforts to keep
transactions secret. Thus the constitutional strictures against
unreasonable searches and seizures must be bent and sometimes broken. And
undercover informants are virtually a necessity. Without such invasions of
privacy and deceptions, trying to enforce the drug laws would be even more
futile than is the case now.

In the wake of Chad MacDonald's brutal murder, the Orange County district
attorney's office is considering written rules for police agencies that use
juvenile informants. It is possible that legislation banning or regulating
the use of underage undercover operatives will be introduced in Sacramento.

Such well-intentioned reforms would be welcome. But until we're ready to
rethink the war on drugs, such tragedies - along with the systematic
incursions on the privacy of are another legacy of the war on drugs - will
continue to occur.