I am writing in response to the February 5 guest editorial entitled, "Drug abuse is deadly" and the February 6 column by Penny Weaver entitled, "Drugs are bad-how complicated is that, anyway?"

I found the guest editorial to be somewhat empathetic and I applaud their understanding that many addicts die every day whether it's from an overdose or poor health because of their drug use.

It's important to remember that while the faces of celebrities are familiar and their talents appreciated, the vast majority of addicts won't be remembered for their talent, but only for the way they died. They are labeled and disregarded as the trash of society.

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MATTOON -- Area law officers claim a marijuana arrest last week put a major dent in the drug trade for Central Illinois.

[redacted] faces delivery of cannabis charges for a Nov. 23 East Central Illinois Task Force arrest in the Mattoon Steak N Shake parking lot. Officers confiscated 1.25 pounds of cannabis and $100,030 in cash, according to Coles County Circuit Court documents.

"This guy was obviously a major supplier," said Coles County Sheriff Darrell Cox after a press conference Monday at Mattoon Police Department. "And the best part is we will be using the money to fight our war against this. This case is one of the reasons we have the task force. And this was the second-largest amount of cash seized by the task force in its history."

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A survey released last week paints a pretty bleak picture of today's teens and tomorrow's leaders.

The annual survey was conducted as part of the I Sing the Body Electric health coalition. Public high school students in seven area counties completed the poll, which found that dating violence, illegal drug use and attempted suicides are on the rise.

The numbers are alarming.

For example, the number of female adolescents who reported they were sexually assaulted increased 25 percent over the last six years; males reported a 13-percent increase since 2002.

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CHARLESTON ­ The investigation started in August with a small inquiry into the sale of cannabis in Charleston.

Charleston Police Chief Mark Jenkins said the investigation has since led to the top of the cannabis' supply line and taken down several people responsible for the flow of drugs into Charleston, Mattoon and other east-central Illinois communities.

"It is clear to me that this is not the type of case that a local police officer develops very often," Jenkins said.

Jenkins said this is why he nominated the officer, Zack Bryan, who developed that case, for the 2008 Coles County Police Officer of the Year award from American Legion Post 88 in Mattoon. The legion presented Bryan with this honor on Jan. 15.

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CHARLESTON - A judge dismissed drug charges that could have brought a Mattoon woman up to 40 years in prison after deciding there was nothing to indicate she was involved in a methamphetamine conspiracy.

Lisa A. Dufrain, 37, 417 N. 20th St., had been accused of obtaining cold medicine with pseudoephedrine to use to make methamphetamine between December 2007 and April of last year.

In reviewing the prosecution's evidence, Circuit Judge Mitchell Shick concluded that no one was able to say that Dufrain knew that the cold medicine she obtained was going to be used for drug manufacturing. That meant it wasn't certain that she obtained the medicine with the criminal intent needed to be proven guilty, Shick decided.

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The federal government has handed us an alarming series of disappointments in the past few weeks.

Officials have announced cuts in funding for anti-drug task forces, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and job training programs. These funding cuts will directly affect many programs in east central Illinois.

- -The East Central Illinois Task Force, which is mainly funded through Department of Justice grants, will get a 67-percent cut in funding.

The task force, which covers Coles, Douglas and Moultrie counties, received $107,122 in funding last fiscal year. In the fiscal year beginning in October, it will receive $35,350.

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