Pubdate: Tue, 24 Jul 2012
Source: Naperville Sun (IL)
Copyright: 2012 Sun-Times News Group
Contact:  http://www.napersun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/853
Author: Kara Spak

'HEROIN HIGHWAY' A GROWING WORRY

He stole from his family and pawned his belongings, but Bill
Patrianakos still couldn't afford his OxyContin habit.

Desperate and broke in 2007, he searched the Internet for stories
about heroin arrests. Then he headed to the location he found online -
the Austin exit off Interstate 290 - to see what he could score.

"I figured heroin was cheaper than pills," Patrianakos, 25, a Web
developer from Joliet, said in an interview. "I just kind of drove
around the neighborhood and went up to every person I saw."

One man agreed to give Patrianakos information about where to find the
drug if he gave him a ride.

"You don't really have friends when you're a drug addict, but it was
kind of like friends," he said. "He was my connection. He would help
me find it."

The image of the heroin user as a burnout, slumped in a city alley
with a dirty tourniquet and a used needle, is fading. Today's heroin,
more powerful and user-friendly than ever, is entrenched in the
suburbs, which in recent years have seen a spate of overdoses, some of
them fatal.

"This is something that's happening a lot," Patrianakos said during
recent a heroin forum at North Central College in Naperville. "It's
not rare at all."

Since January 2011 in Naperville alone, seven people have died after
overdosing on the drug known as "dragon." Thirty fatally overdosed on
heroin in Will County in 2011; seven in Kane County last year. Lake
County saw a 130 percent increase in heroin-related deaths between
2000 and 2009. Naperville Police Detective Shaun Ferguson said his
unit is aware of 127 heroin users in the city, one of whom is 15 years
old. The department's drug unit made 19 heroin-related arrests in the
first six months of this year, he said, a dozen of them suspected dealers.

Between 1998 and 2007, hospital discharges for heroin users age 20 to
24 decreased 67 percent in Chicago. Meanwhile, the collar counties saw
a 200 percent increase, according to "Understanding Suburban Heroin
Use," a study from the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt
University.

"People have a picture in their head of who the drug addict is," said
Patrianakos, who started using drugs as a Lockport Township High
School senior headed to Loyola University Chicago. He used heroin for
more than a year before he was arrested for counterfeiting money and
finally successfully completed rehab in 2008. "The drug addict is your
own kid, the normal-looking kid who is in high school."

'Worst drug out there'

Some people have dubbed I-88, I-290 and Roosevelt Road "heroin
highways" because of all the users traveling from the western suburbs
and beyond into Chicago in search of the drug.

An increase in suburban buyers could be part of the reason federal
agents seized more heroin in Chicago - 400 pounds - than ever before
in 2011. The local office of the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration, for the first time, initiated more cases against
heroin traffickers than those trading in cocaine.

Jack Riley, special agent in charge of the Chicago office of the DEA,
said heroin-pushing Mexican cartels are strongly tied to Chicago
street gangs.

Today's heroin is a different product than 30 years ago, he
said.

"This heroin is far more potent and more cosmetically acceptable," he
said. "Needles are not required. It can be smoked and snorted and has
a completely different user base."

Once called "black tar" because of its appearance, heroin now looks
similar to powder cocaine.

"No longer are needles required, so the fear of AIDS or hepatitis is
gone," Riley said. "It's to the point where it really alarms me that
some people think it might be a recreational-type drug. Clearly it's
not - it's the worst drug out there."

Insidious sprawl

Chicago's suburbs aren't the only place heroin is popping up. The
problem is rearing its head in mid-size cities across the Midwest.

"If you look at Minneapolis, if you look at Milwaukee, if you look at
St. Louis, if you look at Indianapolis, all of the suburbs of those
communities are beginning to see some of the same things we are seeing
here," Riley said. "And it is clearly the result of the influence of
the Mexican cartels. They seized on a market and they're making money
on it."

According to the Roose-velt study, treatment admissions nationally for
teens and young adults for heroin increased nearly 60 percent from
1996 to 2006. In Illinois, nearly 70 percent of teens under 18
admitted to public treatment facilities for heroin use were white.

While some are introduced to heroin as a way to come off their cocaine
or crack high, or through other drugs, the user base is increasingly
young adults, like Patrianakos, who come to heroin after developing a
dependency on prescription pain-killers such as Vicodin and OxyContin.

"Off-label or non-medically indicated prescription drug use is really
beginning to increase," said Stephanie Schmitz, associate director of
the Roosevelt consortium and co-author of the suburban heroin study.
"Pragmatically, it made sense when you start using pills. They're
expensive, difficult to acquire and at some point, as you really get
dependent on these opiates, heroin becomes much more accessible, much
more affordable drug use. It comes with a whole host of problems."

The deadly nature of those problems must be conveyed to those tempted
by heroin, especially teens. Naperville Police Detective Mike
Umbenhower emphasized that a team approach is crucial.

"If you have a tip, if you know something, it could save a life," he
said. "We cannot stress enough how important it is for parents to be
united."

Memo: Fear heroin

Drug education programs in some schools often go into less detail on
the specific dangers of heroin use than other drugs.

"Everyone knew you shouldn't do it and everyone knew it was the big
bad kingpin of drugs, but what we took away was there wasn't a lot of
understanding beyond that," Schmitz said of her interviews with young
suburban users. "They had maybe been let down by the education they
received."

The teens Schmitz interviewed - those who used and did not use heroin
- - said typically drug education at Illinois schools focused on
cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana and only gave a broad overview of
other illicit substances. "When they talked about heroin they said,
'Don't do it' in the same way they said, 'Don't do pot - it's bad,' "
Schmitz said teens and young adults told researchers.

John Roberts, a former Chicago Police Department captain, is trying to
change that message. After retiring from the force in 2004, he and his
family moved to southwest suburban Homer Glen, a place he never
suspected his son would find hard drug use. His son Billy died after
overdosing on heroin when he was 19.

"He didn't know to fear it as kids my age did," Roberts said. "Kids
have to be told to fear this stuff."

Roberts co-founded the Heroin Epidemic Relief Organization to educate
residents about heroin use. Patrianakos is on the group's board.

While hundreds have attended education forums he has been a part of,
Roberts thinks the local suburban community is "absolutely in denial"
about heroin use in their communities.

"Parents, the community, the schools, a lot of our social institutions
don't really recognize it, then admit or accept the fact it is a
serious problem," he said.

He hopes that's changing. The Robert Crown Center for Health Education
in Hinsdale the Roosevelt study to rethink drug education and
introduce it to suburban schools.

"Not only do we have to recognize the problem, but we have to have the
courage to say what we're doing isn't working," Roberts said. "All of
us, schools, law enforcement, the courts - if we know things aren't
working, can we find out why and then put together new and effective
strategies?"
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MAP posted-by: Matt