MORE KIDS SAYING 'YES' TO DRUGS

Cops Believe New Lesson in Prevention Needed

Local police officials say they would rather use education than handcuffs
to deter drug use in the Barrington-area.

Tower Lakes Police Chief Samuel Sinacore said there has been a marked
increase in the use of illicit drugs in the area, and it's time local law
enforcement officials do something about it rather than just taking the
reactive approach -- making arrests.

Sinacore and Terry Lemming, director of the Lake County Metropolitan
Enforcement Group, are planning on holding a drug awareness presentation to
teach Barrington-area youths and parents about the dangers of drug use.

"Chief Sinacore and I are on the same page," said Lemming, whose group is a
multi-jurisdictional undercover drug task force. "We'd rather prevent kids
from using drugs than arresting them after they do it."

Greater Heroin Use

Lemming said there has been a spike in heroin use, though it ranks third
behind marijuana and cocaine among the top three illicit drugs kids use.
The increase in heroin use and addiction can be attributed to the fact that
it is cheaper, purer and easier to ingest now more than ever, he said.

"It used to be you could only inject it with a needle," Lemming said. "Now,
you can snort it and smoke it."

Lemming said seven Lake County heroin users overdosed and died in 2002, and
10 died in 2003. He said seven more died in the first three months of 2004.

"I think one death is too many," Sinacore said, referring to a heroin
overdose that killed a young Barrington-area man earlier this year. "We
need to take steps to educate people about what's going on."

Sinacore and Lemming gave a drug update to local officials in late
September at a meeting of the Barrington Area Council of Governments, which
is comprised of Barrington, Barrington Hills, Deer Park, Lake Barrington,
North Barrington, South Barrington, Tower Lakes and Barrington and Cuba
townships.

Sinacore said the details, including location of the presentation, are
still being worked out. But he believes Barrington High School would be the
optimal site because it's "where the kids are."

Work Together

Barrington High School Principal Tom Leonard said the school administration
would welcome such a program, but it would take a partnership between the
school and police because there is a difference between talking to kids and
talking at them.

"Anytime anyone can help us in terms of encouraging kids to make wiser
decisions related to drugs, alcohol, or any other potentially harmful
behavior, they're going to be welcome," Leonard said. "And hopefully we can
partner with them to accomplish that."

The curriculum of such a presentation is also currently undecided. But
Lemming, who has put on hundreds of them statewide, said they typically
entail basic drug awareness information about marijuana, marijuana
inhalants, cocaine, crack-cocaine, heroin, and club drugs.

Visual displays showing the effects of drug use and former addicts'
personal stories are also usually part of the package, he said.

"Kids have the false sense that taking drugs is glamorous," Lemming said.

Another factor contributing to the proliferation of drug use in the
suburbs, he said, is people have been ignoring the problem or refusing to
acknowledge that there is one.

"Illicit drugs know no difference between affluence or poverty," Lemming
said. "It gets to everybody."

Lemming said he hopes more high schools in Lake County will ask his group
to put on presentations. Part of the aim would be to educate teachers on
how to detect drug use among their students.

"People who see drug trends first are drug users, then treatment people,
then the police," Lemming said. "A health teacher in school doesn't have
that information for long periods of time. In that time, numerous overdoses
could have occurred that may have been prevented."

Leonard said results from a drug survey done last year by the Centers for
Disease Control generally showed that Barrington High School students were
making better choices than students even at schools of comparable demographics.

"However, anytime I have even some number of students engaging in a risky
behavior, I'm going to have concerns," he said.