WHAT'S NEXT? STRONGER DRUGS ON HORIZON; OTHER COMMUNITIES AT RISK, TOO

Robert Taylor, Porter County Drug Task Force Unit coordinator, said
if the county doesn't get its heroin problem in check soon, it's
going to have a bigger problem on its hands -- fentanyl.

The prescription painkiller, when paired with heroin, has been linked
to 60 deaths in Chicago so far this year, 13 of which happened in one
weekend. The U.S. drug czar announced in early June that authorities
shut down a laboratory in Mexico believed to be responsible for
producing the fentanyl linked to the U.S. deaths.

Taylor said fentanyl already is in Porter County and if it hits
Porter County hard, the county is not prepared.

"They only have a six-bed morgue at the hospital," Taylor said. "Ohio
was having that many deaths a day."

Don Rospond, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Northern
Indiana office, recently warned that, although fentanyl has not hit
Indiana as hard as it has Chicago, "it's just a matter of time" before it does.

Just last week, federal authorities filed conspiracy charges against
nearly 50 people involved in the bust of a Chicago South Side
gang-run drug ring believed to be responsible for massive and often
deadly fentanyl sales.

Methamphetamine is another drug Taylor sees as a potential nightmare here.

"I think once the coke trade runs low, we're going to see
methamphetamine come in, and its going to be bigger than the heroin
problem," Taylor said.

"We don't see much meth in the urine ... of people on probation now.
But if people transfer in here from other places that had drug
problems there, probation will let us know."

With so much focus on Porter County and Chicago as local hot spots
for heroin, it almost appears the heroin problem has skipped Lake County.

Taylor said that isn't the case, "but it sure is hidden well."

"Gary, Merrillville and especially Munster have a hell of a problem,
again because of money," Taylor said.

Taylor likened Munster to many Porter County communities that have
become upscale, populated by parents with big-money jobs that take up
a lot of their time and leave their kids to themselves.

Too much unsupervised time coupled with a access to money can be a
prescription for drug addiction for some young people, Taylor said.

Taylor said a mother from Munster contacted him wanting to talk with
her twin sons about their heroin use. One currently is in the Lake
County work release program, the other is on methadone and trying to
attend school.

- -- Times Staff Writer Christine Kraly contributed to this report.