THE TRAGEDY OF A YOUNG LIFE LOST IN THE DRUG WAR

The evidence is in. It is the war on drugs, not the methamphetamines, that
is ultimately responsible for Chad's terrible torture and death. And it is
that same "war" that is presently torturing and killing whatever freedoms
we still retain. But have no fear. The horrible truth has not yet hit home
to enough people, and America's second Prohibition, unlike her first, is
still essentially in fine health and capable of doing still more damage.

Gordon Wilson - Laguna Niguel

I am saddened and sickened that the O.C. district attorney's office has no
policy, written or otherwise, prohibiting the use of juvenile defendants in
undercover drug deals. If they had, 17-year-old Chad MacDonald would be in
a drug treatment program, not released on his own recognizance as the
district attorney's office recommended. If they had, Chad MacDonald would
still be alive today. Shouldn't we be trying to rehabilitate juveniles
instead of sending them into the underworld?

Jody Perkins - Fullerton

A 17-year-old boy is dead at the hands of an out of control anti-narcotics
system. If there is not resultant hue and cry from this community, this
boy's blood is on its hands as plainly as it is on the hands of the
self-serving adults who manipulated him and led him to be tortured and
strangled and tossed like so much trash into that lonely alley.

G. Fred Logan - Laguna Niguel