SUBURBIA'S HEROIN ADDICTION

A Study Says The Chicago Region Leads The Country In Abuse Of The Drug. We
Talk To An Addict, A Cop, A Grieving Mother, A Landlord And A Survivor
Fighting To Stay Clean

If you want to understand why Chicago has the nation's most severe
heroin problem, drop by a small West Side office that's right at the
epicenter.

It's a clinic run by the University of Illinois at Chicago that offers
clean syringes, HIV tests and other services to those buying $10
baggies of dope on the drug-soaked streets nearby. Some of its patrons
are old-timers, weary and bedraggled, their forearms misshapen with
the knots and abscesses from years of shooting up. When you imagine an
addict, they're probably what comes to mind.

But most who pass through the door are startlingly young: suburban
teens and 20-somethings whose dalliance with the drug quickly became a
consuming obsession.

After looking at hospital admissions, drug test results and overdose
deaths, Roosevelt University researchers concluded recently that
heroin abuse in the Chicago region is more extreme than anywhere else
in the country. And young suburbanites are a primary reason.

They say the drug is alluring because it's cheap and easy to obtain.
It's powerful, too, wrapping users in a numbing cocoon that seems to
keep their troubles far away. That, of course, is a lie.

Inside, meet five people with distinct insights into this heroin
crisis: an addict, a cop, a mother, a bystander and a survivor.

Together they illuminate a plague that stretches from city streets to
suburban funeral parlors, and that has proved hard to defeat. Consider
one 33-year-old addict from Waukegan.

He must "spange" - a street term for begging or scamming -$100 a day
to feed his habit. A few weeks ago he got his girlfriend started on
the drug. But with court looming for a probation violation, he said he
was near the end.

"We made a pact," he said. "Our last day is today."

He paused to reconsider.

"Well, maybe tomorrow."