HEROIN HITS HOME HARD IN DUPAGE

Linda Morgan has lived the nightmare.

She has watched heroin get the best of a teenage son, a student who attended
a top public high school in a place often cited as one of America's premier
suburban areas--DuPage County. Morgan has watched her boy carry his
addiction to age 21, watched him lose girlfriends, cars, jobs, his chance at
college and her trust.

Now, she fears she'll be there when he loses his life.

"No parent could ever imagine this for their child," Morgan said. "I'm
looking at my son as he deteriorates. I'm watching him literally fade away."

DuPage County law-enforcement leaders, rehabilitation specialists, parents
and teens themselves said Morgan's story isn't a rare one. In fact, they
said it appears that county teens using heroin is a trend that has continued
to build over the past two years.

"This clearly is a suburbia problem now," said Rhonda Sykes, associate
clinical director at the Hazelden Chicago rehabilitation center in Lombard.
"I could name every community out here and think of an issue we've had with
a teen along these lines."

Sykes said Hazelden has been open for just a year in DuPage and has
performed about 250 evaluations of teens with substance-abuse problems. Of
that number, 40 percent, or 100 cases, have dealt with heroin.

The center is operating at four times the levels its leaders anticipated
before opening its doors, she said, and it has had to add three staffers,
each of whom can handle up to 10 drug cases.

Those charged with keeping drugs out of the county aren't surprised by such
numbers. Police have suggested for more than a year that many DuPage teens
have slipped into the habit of heading to Chicago's West Side to buy
narcotics, most notably a snortable variety of heroin.

Naperville police have warned that dozens of teens in their city have made
their way on a list of known heroin addicts. Emergency-room physicians at
the city's Edward Hospital reportedly continue to treat several teens a
month for the effects of heroin use.

Mark Henry, director of the DuPage Metropolitan Enforcement Group, the
county's undercover drug police cooperative, said heroin has permeated teen
life in all corners of the county.

"It's everywhere," he said. "I hate to say that, but it's true."

And law-enforcement leaders recently cited another troubling signal. Earlier
this year, a notorious heroin dealer from Chicago was stopped in western
DuPage allegedly while in possession of heroin packaged for distribution.

DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba said he fears dealers are starting to
realize the heroin market in the county is strong enough to warrant trips
there.

"Chicago is definitely one of the nation's hubs for heroin, and we have the
money out in DuPage to pay for it," Zaruba said. "I wouldn't say it's the
drug of choice for teens, but this is becoming more and more prevalent
here."

Teens recovering from involvement in the local drug culture said area kids
typically start their habits with marijuana, eventually graduating to harder
substances. Seventeen-year-old Autumn of Naperville and 20-year-old John of
Elmhurst, two students in recovery in Hazelden, who requested they not be
fully identified, said they took that route to heroin use.

John, whose expressive face was partially obscured by a red baseball cap on
a recent night, said he used heroin for the first time while a student at
York High School in Elmhurst. He slipped into a coma last fall while using
heroin, but he said he has been "clean" for four months.

Formerly a regular visitor to drug-infested streets in Chicago, John said
his parents knew nothing of his heroin use until it nearly killed him. His
family life was "solid." He had made good grades, been a soccer player and
kept up all the appearances of normalcy.

"They weren't aware of it at all," John said. "I guess I was good at hiding
it."

Many parents simply want to believe their children are fine, John said, even
to the point of shrugging off evidence of drug use or accepting obvious
lies.

Autumn, an energetic teen with blond hair and bright eyes, said she hasn't
used heroin for 18 months. Autumn said she began using the narcotic with
friends at Naperville parties.

She said drug use starts under the noses of parents in denial. Suburban
kids, who know the dangers of drugs, begin using them to escape from
problems, be accepted by a peer group or just to try something new, Autumn
said.

"That's why this is so scary, and it's so hard to intervene," she said. "You
can't say, `This is why it happens.' "

Tom and Diane Sanchez of Glen Ellyn have concerns for one of their
daughters, an 18-year-old headed for rehabilitation herself. They became
alarmed in recent months to learn about a circle of students and recent
graduates of Glenbard West High School using heroin.

Glenbard West is the high school that Morgan's son dropped out of as his
drug problems began. Officials of the Glen Ellyn school have said they have
made efforts to notify parents of drug problems, and Principal Susan Bridge
noted that no high school in the county is immune from such troubles.

"We haven't buried our heads in the sand," Bridge said.

Nonetheless, Tom Sanchez said his community needs to wake up.

"All the kids at Glenbard West need to know that if you touch that stuff,
it's for life; your life is ruined forever," he said. "Everyone is being
quiet while heroin is eating up these kids."

The Sanchezes live on a tree-lined street where kids sell lemonade on street
corners, not hard drugs. But Diane Sanchez said the county's image shouldn't
lull parents to sleep.

"People don't know this is at their front door," she said.

And the county has seen fatal overdoses as a result: In 1998, a 17-year-old
from Darien died after being taken to Hinsdale Hospital; earlier this year,
an overdose killed a Lisle 16-year-old.

"Kids somehow have to realize what they're doing," said Autumn, who now
speaks at local schools. "I never said, `I want to get addicted and do this
for the rest of my life.'"