HEROIN DEATHS 'WOEFULLY UNDERREPORTED'

ROCKFORD -- Dr. Al Baris is amazed and saddened by what he sees
during rounds at Rosecrance Health Network in Rockford and the
emergency room at Rochelle Community Hospital.

"Every heroin user I've met, who has used for a few years, knows of
someone who's died from a heroin overdose," said Baris, who believes
that heroin-related deaths are "woefully underreported."

"It's interesting to talk to people who know of someone who recently
died," Baris continued. "They'll be sad, but they'll say, 'I wish I
had some of his heroin, though.'

"It's amazing. It's actually envy and desire. They know it was strong stuff.

"Of course," added Baris with tongue in cheek, "they know they'd be
able to handle it."

Baris is certified by the American Society of Addiction Medicine and
has been treating addicts for 20 years. In recent years, he's seen
more heroin use in young adults and adolescents.

His observation is echoed by others in the field. After a weekend in
which two local people -- ages 22 and 32 -- died of apparent drug
overdoses, at least one suspected to be heroin, the Register Star
made phone calls Monday and came up with these numbers:

At Rosecrance Health Network, which specializes in drug problems,
there was a 30 percent increase in heroin use among adolescent adults
from fiscal 2005 to this year.

Of the 800 adolescents from northern Illinois, including the Chicago
suburbs, Rosecrance expects to treat each year, 23 percent use
heroin, often combined with other drugs. That's up from 17 percent last year.

Of 3,000 adults to be treated at Rosecrance this year, 30 percent
will be heroin users.

Rosecrance vice president of development Lynne Vaas said heroin
addictions have increased the past five years, especially among
adolescents and the 18-25-year-old young adult group.

One Rockford hospital, SwedishAmerican, reported an increase in
heroin overdoses in the past six months and even more so in the past
six weeks. Spokeswoman Jan Hagenlocher said the emergency room deals
with at least three heroin overdoses each week.

The Winnebago County coroner's office has handled 14 deaths this year
of either confirmed or suspected drug overdoses, which is double the
typical amount.

Winnebago County's drug court program is seeing more adolescents with
heroin addictions, said probation officer Char Hearns. One reason,
Hearns said, is that heroin is more affordable than it once was, at
least in the low doses users start with.

Rockford Police Sgt. Kurt Whisenand said while it depends on
availability and purity, heroin goes for about $100 to $125 a gram at
street level, which is comparable to the street-level price of cocaine.

A user, dependent on his or her level of addiction, typically shoots
up, snorts or smokes about 0.1 or 0.2 of a gram at a time. That can
be repeated several times a day.

In an effort to dilute purity, heroin is often "cut" or mixed with
other substances. For example, a dealer might mix white heroin with
powdered milk and black tar heroin with coffee.

The result is that users don't necessarily know the potency of the
batch of heroin they are using, nor do they always know what it's
been cut with.

"You know, a lot of people talk about 'good' heroin and 'bad' heroin,
but there's really no such thing as 'good' heroin," Whisenand said.

"It's all very dangerous."

A laced batch may have been the cause of 19 illnesses and one death
in the Chicago neighborhood of Humboldt Park over the weekend, said
Officer Marcel Bright with the Chicago Police Department's Office of
News Affairs.

"At this point, we're waiting for lab reports to determine what was
out there," Bright said. The sicknesses originated from two spots in
the same neighborhood, the 900 block of St. Louis Avenue and the 1100
block of North Springfield, Bright said.

Whether any of that heroin made it to Rockford and is involved in the
weekend's suspected overdoses is a matter of speculation. In
February, a batch of heroin mixed with fentanyl -- an anesthetic and
analgesic -- was linked to as many as a dozen deaths in one Chicago
neighborhood. But whether any of that heroin turned up in Rockford is
not known.

"If there is a connection, that information might be confidential for
police use," Bright said.

Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said of the 14 deaths either
confirmed or suspected of being caused by drug overdoses there was
evidence of fentanyl in the system of one man, a 56-year-old who died
in February.

Except for the high number, Fiduccia said, there's really nothing
remarkable about the victims she sees in terms of age or
socioeconomic background.

"It's really all over the board," she said. "If there is (a specific
demographic) I haven't seen it."

Staff writer Mike Wiser can be reached at 815-987-1377 or
mwiser@rrstar.com; Staff writer Geri Nikolai can be reached at
815-987-1337 or gnikolai@rrstar.com.

Getting help

Some places for help with addictions:

Rosecrance Health Network: 815-391-1000

PHASE: 815-547-4502 or 815-962-0871

Alcoholics Anonymous: 815-968-0333 or www.alcoholicsanonymous.org

Reformers Unanimous: 815-986-0460 or e-mail runanimous@aol.com.

Narcotics Anonymous: 815-964-5959

CONTACT crisis line: 815-636-5000

CONTACT referral: 815-636-5005

American Council for Drug Education: 800-488-DRUG

Al-Anon: 800-344-2666

Center for Substance Abuse Prevention: 800-729-6686

National Hotline for treatment referral: 800-662-4357

National Helpline: 800-HELP-111

Health hazards

Heroin abuse is associated with serious health conditions, including
fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion, collapsed veins, and
particularly in users who inject the drug, infectious diseases,
including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.

Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse

What is heroin?

Heroin is an addictive drug processed from morphine, a naturally
occurring substance extracted from the seedpod of the Asian poppy
plant. Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder. Street
names for heroin include smack, H, skag and junk. Other names may
refer to types of heroin produced in a specific geographical area,
such as Mexican black tar.

Recent studies suggest a shift from injecting heroin to snorting or
smoking because of increased purity and the misconception that these
forms are safer.