ROOSEVELT U. STUDY FINDS CHICAGO AREA WORST IN NATION FOR HEROIN ABUSE

Once depicted as a drug relegated to the alleys of poor, rough,
seedy, urban environs, heroin has found a new and thriving home in the suburbs.

Huge increases in heroin use among whites, suburbanites and teenagers
are a major factor in why the Chicago area suffers what might be the
nation's worst heroin problem, according to a new study released today.

"It's cheaper than a six-pack of beer and it's easier to get. Drug
dealers don't ask for I.D.," says Kathleen Kane-Willis, one of the
authors of the Roosevelt University report on heroin use in Illinois
from 1998 to 2008.

In recent years there has been an "acknowledgment" that heroin exists
in the suburbs, but the information in this study "is still a wake-up
call," adds fellow Roosevelt researcher Stephanie Schmitz, who lives
in Schaumburg. "It just seems so far removed from what we think our
kids might be doing. But in fact, they are."

Hospital emergency rooms in the city, suburbs and collar counties
treated 23,931 people with heroin issues between 2004 and 2008, 50
percent more than were treated for heroin abuse in New York City,
according to the report. In a sampling of people detained at Cook
County Jail in 2008, 29 percent tested positive for heroin, more than
double the rate of Washington, D.C., which had the second-highest
rate. Those who tested positive also reported using heroin 26 days a month.

The study found that people in Illinois seek treatment for heroin
problems more than any other illegal substance, and second only to alcohol.

"That was pretty surprising to me," admits Kane-Willis, who already
was well-versed in the growth of heroin problems.

While urban areas might be more familiar with the downsides of
heroin, "people growing up in the suburbs don't know how dangerous it
is," says Chrystal Beinlich, who installed a heroin-awareness
billboard in Wheeling after the overdose death of her 18-year-old
son, Nick, in 2007. "As a parent, I wasn't aware that it was in my community."

The Lincolnshire mom says she still sees parents who naively suggest
heroin couldn't be a problem for their good kids, or that they'd
know, and put a stop to it, if their children were exposed to a drug
that could kill them.

"Don't you think I have that same mentality?" Beinlich says, noting
that kids sometimes assume that something as cheap, plentiful and
popular as heroin must not be that bad. "Good kids make bad decisions
all the time."

Adults who grew up with images of heroin as a dangerous drug done
only by "junkies in alleys" might not realize how prevalent it is in
the suburbs, says Michelle Hines, a Lake Zurich mom who is active in
heroin-related programs such as Hearts of Hope in Geneva and a
12-step recovery program hosted by Willow Creek Community Church in
South Barrington.

"In areas where you just have not historically had a lot of heroin
abuse or seen a lot of addicts, you don't get a sense of how damaging
it can be," Schmitz says, adding that older addicts might help others
avoid overdoses or at least serve as living reminders of how heroin
can ruin lives. "You don't have the guy on the corner nodding out. In
the suburbs, it's much more hidden."

A generation ago, someone had to be connected to the drug world to
know where to buy heroin and even how to inject it. Now, heroin is
easier to find and use, and the Internet provides how-to directions
that often fail to report the dangers, the researcher says.

"In the suburbs you have no idea what this drug does," Kane-Willis
says. Kids think they are smart enough to avoid addiction, overdoses
and the woes of heroin.

"These clusters of kids are doing it on their own and that's really
scary," Schmitz says. "It's uncharted territory."

Raising awareness is the first step.

"One of the things I struggle with is that I feel my head was in the
sand," says Jody Daitchman, of Buffalo Grove, who never even
considered that her son, Alex Laliberte, 20, might be using heroin
until she discovered him dead in their home.

Having been initiated into the sad fraternity of suburban parents who
have lost children to heroin, Daitchman says the Roosevelt study
"doesn't surprise me at all." Her website live4lali.org tries to
raise awareness and funds for prevention and treatment.

"I think too many people are oblivious to it," Daitchman says. "But I
was one of those people."

While heroin use is skyrocketing, Schmitz and Kane-Willis say
Illinois could do several things to improve the situation, starting
with more thorough drug education. Kane-Willis says that when an
adult or teacher says, "Don't do this. It's bad," kids think, "'Well,
bad like how? Bad like pot is bad?'"

"I don't think there's a differentiation between substances," Kane-Willis says.

The Roosevelt University study concludes that medically assisted
treatment programs, which substitute other drugs for heroin, remain
underfunded in Illinois. The study also calls for an increased use of
naloxone, a drug credited with saving nearly 2,000 people who
overdosed; syringe-exchange programs that help users avoid HIV and
other blood-borne diseases; and legal protection for people who call
911 to report an overdose.

Acknowledging that their research showing a rise in heroin use in
Illinois is "scary," Schmitz and Kane-Willis point out that their
research was limited to arrest records, coroner reports, government
health programs and other public data.

"The picture could actually be much worse," Schmitz says, explaining
that heroin victims treated in private facilities or in other states
don't get counted in Illinois.

"To me," Kane-Willis says, "especially among white, middle class or
upper middle class, I think the numbers of heroin users is much larger."

Suburbs a Big Part of the Problem

A new study by Roosevelt University concludes that skyrocketing
heroin use in the suburbs has contributed to Chicago's rank among the
worst nationally for heroin-related problems. The study found:

. Spikes in overdoses in collar counties. Heroin-related deaths are
up 130 percent in Lake during the last decade, up 150 percent in
three years in McHenry and double in just two years in Will County.

. Heroin is the most common illegal drug named in treatment programs
and trails only alcohol as the reason Illinois residents seek
treatment for substance abuse. Between 1998 and 2008 the number of
people treated for heroin abuse in Illinois jumped from 4,150 to
17,411 to surpass cocaine and marijuana.

. White users of heroin generally are younger than African-American
users in Illinois. In publicly funded treatment in 2008, nearly 70
percent of heroin users younger than 18 were white. Of those aged 20
to 24 entering public treatment facilities in 2008, 83 percent were
white. In 2008, 86 percent of people aged 45 to 54 entering such
facilities were African-American.

. Cook County Jail had the nation's highest rate of heroin use as a
2008 sample of detainees showed 29 percent tested positive for
heroin. That sample also reported using heroin 26 days a month.

. Between 2004 and 2008, Chicago, suburbs and collar counties
reported 23,931 hospital emergency department cases involving heroin,
nearly 50 percent higher than heroin case in the New York City
metropolitan area.

. The majority of teens discharged from hospitals after treatment
for heroin issues live in the suburbs. In 2007, just 12 percent of
those teens lived in Chicago, with 25 percent from suburban Cook
County and 38 percent from collar counties.

. The study concludes that Illinois needs more comprehensive drug
education, especially for young people; more funds for treatment
programs; syringe-exchange programs to reduce the spread of HIV and
other blood-borne diseases; increased use of overdose prevention and
drugs; and support of a law that provides partial or full immunity to
people who call 911 to report an overdose.