Pubdate: Sat, 16 Sep 2006
Source: Daily Journal, The (IL)
Copyright: 2006 The Daily Journal Publishing Co., L.L.C.
Contact:  http://www.daily-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2805
Author: Mike Lyons

WAR AGAINST KILLER DRUG

It's a kid killer -- a destroyer of grade schoolers and high 
schoolers foolish enough to toy with the ancient opiate known as heroin.

But area police say that, despite the risks, kids convinced of their 
own immortality continue to be captured by the "creature" some call 
Skag; Smack; White Boy; Junk or Dead on Arrival.

That's why Wilmington police -- alarmed by the surreptitious spread 
of heroin into the community's youth culture -- are hosting a public 
meeting 6 p.m. Monday at the Mar Theater to boost awareness and forge 
a homegrown defense.

Among the speakers slated to share the stories of heroin horror that 
has shattered their lives will be two Kankakee area moms.

Kim Kleinert of rural Chebanse is the mother of a 17-year-old son 
whose life has become a seemingly endless string of treatment center stays.

And a Kankakee mom, who wishes not to be unidentified, says a heroin 
overdose killed her 19-year-old son who, while dying, was dropped off 
on her stoop by one of his drug acquaintances.

"I wanted to learn everything I could about heroin addiction, 
thinking I could fix him," Kleinert told The Daily Journal during an 
earlier interview.

"Then I moved to the realization that I can't fix him. He's got to 
fix himself."

Her son began, as many of its newest users do, ingesting junk by snorting it.

Fastest Growing Abuse

Remarkably, he and others who inhale the drug imagine they're somehow 
immune from addiction.

The opposite is true.

According to Drug Abuse Recognition Training, "the fastest growing 
drug of abuse in American high schools is heroin."

The drug training regime adds that "many wealthy communities across 
the country are reporting high school overdose deaths from heroin, a 
shocking trend in teenage drug use."

Now, the threat of drug overdose deaths has escalated as dealers are 
boosting the "horsepower" of smack with the powerful drug Fentanyl, a 
synthetic painkiller 80 times more potent than morphine. Two recent 
Grundy County drug deaths have been attributed to overdoses of 
Fentanyl-laced heroin. Half of urban heroin deaths are attributed to 
it; and it caused 34 in Cook County in a year.

Scope Of Problem

Kleinert, whose son has suffered two overdoses this year and has 
recently entered yet another treatment program, warns that "the area 
has a bigger problem than anyone believes."

That's why she's made herself available to warn parents of the 
telltale warning signs of teen heroin addiction.

She, and the anonymous mom who will speak Monday, are determined to 
make their pain count for something. To fight back against the 
creature that captured the lives of their sons.
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