HEROIN ODS IN OVERDRIVE

Potent Batch Suspected In Deaths Near South Side Public Housing

An unusual rise in drug overdose deaths near a public housing complex
on Chicago's South Side has police investigating heroin in the area
to determine if a particularly lethal batch is being sold there.

While toxicology tests from about half a dozen autopsies are done,
narcotics officers will focus on drug busts near Dearborn Homes,
Deputy Supt. Charles Williams said.

"We'll be analyzing what we're seizing in there from now on too,"
Williams said Sunday.

Narcotics investigators conducted a major undercover drug conspiracy
bust in Dearborn Homes in the last couple of months, Williams said,
and it is "more than likely" that whoever has attempted take control
of the turf after those arrests is responsible for selling the
questionable drugs.

Police did not know if the drug was strong or had been mixed with
another potent substance.

At Dearborn Homes, a complex of mostly six-story apartment buildings
at South State and 27th Streets, residents said word of the potent
heroin began circulating over the weekend.

Along a two-block stretch of State, police cameras are mounted atop
light poles and a hospital advertisement painted on a bench at
mid-block asks, "Are you addicted?"

Dan Bigg, director of the Chicago Recovery Alliance, said drug users
began talking last week about some strong heroin available on that
stretch of State, known as a busy heroin corridor, particularly for
people from the southwest suburbs.

Two of the program's participants are believed to be among the dead, he said.

Andrew Hyde, an alliance outreach worker, said manufacturers and
dealers routinely cut the drug before it hits the streets, which can
be a problem when the drug is mixed with a particularly strong substance.

"It's a case of the heroin being too good, too pure, too strong,"
Hyde said. "They're thinking they're using less."

The overdoses become even more dangerous, he said, because they often
attract more customers to the area rather than scare them away.

"It usually piques interest," Hyde said. "It makes them want to go
out and get the dope because it's stronger. It's a messed up mentality."

DePaul University sociology professor Greg Scott said Sunday a man
who hosts heroin addicts in his home told him he had seen five people
overdose last week on heroin bought in the area, including one person
twice. All overdosed in a four-hour stretch but were revived with
naloxone, a liquid that reverses the fatal effects of opiate drugs,
said Scott, who studies transmission of viral disease among injection
drug users.

"They didn't know it was that potent," he said. "They had no idea
what they were getting themselves into."

Cindy Serpliss of Galena believes her son fell victim to a toxic
batch of heroin after driving 160 miles to buy it.

On Jan. 25, Josh Serpliss, 21, was found dead in the passenger seat
of a car parked in Maywood, along the Eisenhower Expressway. His
friend, Justin Jobgen, 23, sat in the driver's seat, still clutching
the syringe that also led to his death.

Maywood police immediately suspected a lethal batch of heroin, the
parents of both men said.

Officials there could not be reached Sunday to comment if that case
might be linked to the Dearborn Homes deaths.

Josh Serpliss began using heroin about a year ago, and last year his
family sat by his side for three days, helping him through the
violent reactions of getting clean, and supported him as he went
through rehab in November.

"We helped him through detox ourselves. It was some of the most
satanic systems you've ever seen a person go through," said Cindy
Serpliss of her older son. "He was so proud of the days he had been clean."

The Serpliss family talked with Josh about heroin's potent allure. He
knew that if he slid back, his body couldn't withstand the doses he
once needed for the high, his mother said.

She said she is comforted to learn from a medical examiner that his
arms were unmarred by the telltale needle scars of heroin addiction.
He had one small puncture wound, she was told.

Randy Jobgen, also of Galena, had been checking his own son's arms.
But Justin Jobgen was clean for about two months.

The young man was a promising chef for an upscale pizzeria. Work was
the only thing that dulled the need for heroin.

"He told me, when you go to bed, you dream about it. When you wake
up, you wish you had it. You forget about it for a while when you go
to work. Then you go to bed and it starts all over again," his father said.

Police told the father that the parking lot at 1st Avenue and I-55 is
popular with drug users as they leave Chicago.

"They get it, and pull into this because it's a real quick on and
off. They do it there, they come down a little bit and drive off."

Both families live in Galena, a western Illinois tourist destination
and town of 3,500.

"My fear is kids will see this and say it won't happen to me," Ron
Serpliss said. "It's the same thing as saying, 'I won't get
addicted.' But it grabbed Josh by the throat. It was just the most
incredible thing."