Pubdate: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 Source: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) Copyright: 2006 The Daily Herald Company Contact: http://www.dailyherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/107 Author: Emily Ngo, Daily Herald Staff Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) FENTANYL'S PRESENCE GROWING IN CHICAGO, SUBURBS His first love, first car and first full-time job marked the beginning of his adult years. But it was David Konen's first encounter with fentanyl that caused their abrupt end. The 18-year-old Streamwood resident was found unconscious in his bed - -- an unfinished line of heroin and a bloodied dollar bill on the table beside it. "He didn't know the heroin was laced," said David's mother, Carin Konen. "He never would have done it." David was pronounced dead later that Mother's Day at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates. His death was among the first related to the additive that doctors there had ever encountered, but Drug Enforcement Administration officials said it is unlikely to be the last. Fentanyl has increasingly been used to create lethal hybrid drugs in Chicago and the suburbs, they said. "On most occasions, the buyers didn't know it was fentanyl," said Christopher Hoyt, a special agent with the Chicago DEA division. "We've conducted buys of our own. They sold us heroin, and it tested as fentanyl." A Painkiller That Kills Fentanyl, a painkiller that doctors say can be used in surgery without the patients losing consciousness, has seeped into the heroin supplies of specific cities, and federal officials are not sure why, they said. Drug dealers might see fentanyl as a marketing tool; the high created by the mixture can be hundreds of times stronger than street drugs alone, federal officials said. Heroin containing fentanyl looks the same as heroin alone, Hoyt said. Users may not realize it's a hybrid until their respiratory systems begin to shut down, sometimes resulting in death, he said. In Cook County, fentanyl has been linked to 102 deaths since April 2005, Chief Medical Examiner Edmund Donoghue said last week. More than 90 percent of those deaths have occurred since December 2005, he said. "Apparently, we haven't seen the peak yet," Donoghue said. Although the deadly phenomenon is more prevalent in the city, its presence is beginning to be felt in the suburbs. "We have overdoses from time to time, but nothing this significant," said Deputy Chief James Gremo of the Streamwood police. David Konen's death "could be the first fentanyl case in Streamwood." David's Last Hours Friends and family members said David had used alcohol and marijuana, but harder drugs -- heroin, cocaine and ecstasy -- were ones he had just begun trying. "He wasn't a drug addict; he was like any other child," Carin Konen said. "This was the second time he tried heroin." The night before his death, David met two acquaintances at about 10 p.m. for a drive to Chicago, where he bought two bags of heroin for $30. It was one of the few instances he was apart from childhood friend Jeff Zilinger. "Those kids took advantage of his money," Zilinger said. "He never plotted to use drugs, and he didn't go into the city every day to get them." In memory of David, Zilinger has had the words "In loving memory D K" tattooed on his arm. David's 14-year-old brother, Tyler, expresses his grief in a similar manner, donning a memorial armband on his baseball uniform. Tyler Konen was the last person to see David conscious, checking in on him at about 4 a.m. -- hours after David had returned from the city. But by noon, David was dead. Where It Comes From "People from the suburbs have been coming to Chicago's South and West Sides for years for their heroin," Hoyt said. Fentanyl is even newer to the suburbs than it is to the city, he said. The surge in its use since January has prompted federal officials to begin collecting samples of heroin for testing, Hoyt said. "They're trying to identify the source and see if it's coming from one place or if it's all a coincidence -- if it's pharmaceutical grade or it's manufactured clandestinely," Hoyt said. David's fatal overdose could have originated with the May theft of fentanyl from Chicago's Resurrection Hospital or labs illegally run in Mexico like the one busted, also in May, federal officials said. DEA officials met with Chicago police in early June for a two-day summit, acknowledging the fentanyl problem has become larger than they expected. They plan to continue investigations of traffickers, but also to increase public awareness through the media and drug prevention professionals, federal officials said. "We're letting everyone know that fentanyl is making a dangerous drug even more dangerous," Hoyt said. Police and their DEA counterparts also cooperated June 21 to charge 47 gang members on Chicago's South Side with conspiring to distribute fentanyl-laced drugs from a housing complex there. The bust is a start to curbing the fentanyl problem in the area, federal officials said. Family, Friends Grieve The Konen family said they don't care where the fentanyl originates as long as authorities stop its illegal use. They plan to concentrate on grief counseling sessions that began last month, Carin Konen said. They also want to remember how David lived, not how he died, she said. A talented baseball player, "David was always the MVP," Konen said. "People still talk about how when he got up to pitch, they were afraid to hit off of him." David made friends everywhere he went, she said. Hundreds of them flocked to be with David in the hospital, and thousands came to his funeral, Konen said. There wasn't enough room in the book of condolences for everyone to sign, she said. "He never liked to fight with people and never got anyone mad," Zilinger said. In the weeks after his death, David's friends painted their cars with the words "R.I.P., D.K.," Zilinger said. Friend J.T. Patel still won't allow anyone to sit in his car in "David's seat." David had insisted on being an organ donor when he received his driver's license, Carin Konen said. His liver, kidney, pancreas and heart will save four lives through the Gift of Hope organ donation program, she said. "He would give you the shirt off his back," Konen said. "He always wanted to help someone out." Growing up in Streamwood, David experienced adolescent angst. After his parents, Carin and Dave, divorced, his mother underwent 52 surgeries and his father suffered a near-fatal strep infection. David struggled with courses at Streamwood High School, dropping out his junior year. The consistent factor through it all was his dependability as a friend. "Just a couple months ago, David saved a friend who had (overdosed) on cocaine," Carin Konen said. Others called David to come to the party where the friend had passed out, she said. "They knew he would help," Konen said. "He dragged the kid down the stairs by himself and threw him face-first in the snow." The paramedics said David's actions had helped open the friend's air passages, she said. David's first love, Kelly Bruno, to whose side he rushed each time she asked, continues to mourn with his family. His first car -- a 1997 Dodge Intrepid -- has been donated to Zilinger. And co-workers at his first full-time job -- a labor position at the Kirk Corp., where his father worked as a project manager -- are opening an account to help the Konen family with David's hospital expenses. "He used to tell me, 'You've got to let me make mistakes,'ae" Carin Konen said. "His death is his own fault. "He wasn't a saint; he was just a teenager," she said. "He wanted to live." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman