Pubdate: Mon, 24 Feb 2014
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2014 Sun-Times Media, LLC
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5QwXAJWY
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Page: 19

HEROIN SCOURGE BEGS FOR ANSWERS

The hidden scourge of heroin addiction has been sneaking up on
Illinois, and we need far better counter-measures before more people
die needlessly.

As state Rep. Lou Lang (DSkokie) says, "What we are doing now is
failing."

The arrest Saturday of Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman obviously was
a significant move in the right direction. Guzman's Sinaloa syndicate
is said to be responsible for the majority of heroin, as well as
marijuana and cocaine, flowing into the Chicago region. But forgive us
for suspecting the flow will continue, the money to be made simply too
huge for the trafficking to be stymied by even Guzman's arrest. Law
enforcement alone cannot end the heroin scourge.

Signs of the problem are everywhere. DuPage County reported a record
46 heroin-related deaths in 2013. In Downstate Madison County, three
victims of suspected overdoses were found within just a five-hour time
period this month. In west suburban Riverside, a couple who
authorities say were on a heroin binge were found slumped last week in
a car stopped on a railroad crossing.

On Friday, the DuPage County Health Department hosted a roundtable
event including the coroner, chiefs of police and state's attorney to
discuss the heroin epidemic. Two weeks ago, several DuPage County
officials introduced a plan to crack down on heroin use and prevent
deaths by targeting prescription-drug abuse and beefing up statutes
that allow prosecutors to go after gang leaders. The officials would
channel any additional revenues from forfeitures to fund
substance-abuse treatment centers.

As for Lang, House Speaker Michael Madigan has appointed him to head
an anti-heroin task force that will hold four hearings in the Chicago
areas this spring.

The current system of relying on criminal penalties isn't getting the
job done. Heroin is everywhere, not just on seedy streets in bad
neighborhoods. Some addicts are turning to heroin because crackdowns
have made it harder to get prescription opiate painkillers. Others no
longer can afford to buy illegally obtained prescription painkillers
and are turning to heroin, which is cheaper.

The Mexican drug cartels, having made Chicago their Midwestern hub,
are flooding the market with a relatively inexpensive heroin that can
be snorted, so needles aren't needed. Fatalities are going up partly
because some heroin now is laced with fentanyl, an opioid that boosts
heroin's power but also makes it more hazardous.

Too often, families find their loved ones, particularly teens and
young adults, have succumbed to addiction only after a fatal overdose
occurs. The best-known recent death from heroin was that of actor
Philip Seymour Hoffman in New York on Feb. 2, but many Illinois
families are dealing with the heartache of losing loved ones to the
drug. And when heroin use goes up, so do related crimes such as burglary.

Illinois is not alone in its struggling with a surging heroin problem.
According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, there was a
21 percent increase in fatal drug overdoses nationwide from 2006 to
2010. Gov. Peter Shumlin of Vermont, where addiction is up 770 percent
since 2000, this month devoted most of his state of the state address
to the epidemic.

In Wisconsin, lawmakers last week voted to set up quick sanctions
short of prison for offenders who violate their parole or probation so
heroin addicts can get treatment. They also voted to open opiate
treatment centers in underserved areas.

One answer is to widen the availably of naloxone, which if
administered in time can save someone having an opiate overdose. That
proposal was at the top of the agenda at Friday's roundtable event in
DuPage.

But nobody would say that's enough. The pressure is on Lang's task
force to propose more creative solutions.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt