TIME FOR COMMUNITY TO FIGHT DRUGS

It's about time.

Drug abuse is nasty business. It's not pretty to watch. And writing
about it as a newspaper is not something we do with glee.

But it's about time that it be exposed for the problem it's become
among our young people. It's time that we not hide it anymore but
share our experiences and learn as a community to combat it.

For many parents, a child's drug abuse - or leanings toward it - is
something that is kept behind closed doors or ignored. Teenagers are
quietly shipped off for treatment - a good step, to be sure - but the
stigma and the silence remain.

And that does nothing to solve the greater ills drugs cause in our
communities.

But there are people who want others to learn from their mistakes. It
takes no small measure of bravery to stand in front of hundreds of
people to tell the story of how you stole and lied and stuck needles
in your arms.

Courtney Barkei and Scott McDonald are two young people who are eager
to tell their stories if they can open some eyes and stop someone from
making the same mistakes they did.

Barkei, 21, of Batavia, and McDonald, 24, of St. Charles, know
firsthand the devastation of heroin addiction.

We told their stories in our four-day series last month, labeled "The
Hidden Scourge: How heroin and club drugs have taken root in the suburbs."

And, in an effort to shine a light on the problem, we continue to tell
the stories of young people who die as a result of drugs.

Barkei and McDonald will be among a panel of speakers at the Arcada
Theater in St. Charles Tuesday night in a Daily Herald-sponsored forum
on heroin and club drug use in the suburbs. Admission is free, and the
forum runs from 7 to 9 p.m. The Arcada is at 150 E. Main St. (Route
64) in the heart of downtown. Please call us at (630) 587-8612 if you
plan to attend.

They will be joined by McDonald's mother, Linda; St. Charles Police
Chief Don Shaw, whose department tracks heroin users and the crimes
they commit; Kane County Judge James Doyle, who started and runs the
county's drug court; and Kate Patton, whose daughter, Kelley McEnery
Baker, died of an overdose of the club drug Ecstasy. Heading up the
discussion will be Carol Falkowski, a leading researcher in teen drug
use.

It's time for a forum like this, and judging by the hundreds of people
who have told us they are coming to listen and share, it seems many of
you agree.

This will be a time of learning, of sharing, of connecting. And for
many of the parents who have called and written us since our series
ran, there hasn't been enough of that.

It's time.