James Glasgow had a message to share Monday night in Channahon. He wanted to spread the word that use of heroin has reached epidemic levels and that parents need to be hypervigilent to stop it.
“Our kids can pick up a hit of heroin for less than the price of a movie ticket,” he told members Monday night. “We’ve got to get the message out to the parents in the community at the grass roots level; you can't be asleep at the wheel.”
Glasgow said that about three years ago, those involved in law enforcement saw a shift from the use of cocaine to heroin. Although both are terrible for the community, the chance of overdose is much higher with heroin use.
“We’re on a pace for 60 fatal overdoses for Will County this year if we don’t do something.,” he said. “This is something we’ve never experienced before.
"(With) cocaine, you almost never saw an overdose.”
Glasgow said part of the reason that heroin use is on the rise is the sheer volume of it that is available. And, the use of it has become more socially acceptable as the purity of the drug has increased and it no longer necessary to use a needle to take heroin.
“It’s so pure that it can be smoked or snorted,” he said. “It’s becoming acceptable in the teenage culture right now.”
said the information has to reach residents and that they must realize that heroin use is rising in all areas of Will County. No community is immune.
“Sometimes I think people in communities like ours think the heroin issue isn’t an issue here that it’s an inner city issue and it’s not,” Cook said. “This isn’t just an urban problem.”
In fact, on March 14, Channahon Police on charges of possession with intent to deliver heroin.
Glasgow said of the 30 overdoses last year, three were in Naperville.
Glasgow said he likes to create solutions in Will County that other areas can copy. To that end, the will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and again from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on April 13 at Lewis University in Romeoville.
TreatmentMatch.org is a free service from the non-profit organization naabt.org and is a confidential way to find doctors certified to treat opioid addiction in their office. Learn more about buprenorphine at naabt.org
We're also talking about children who are trying this stuff and getting hooked. So, before you start saying they're so dumb and should off themselves, maybe you should think of your children, or neices or nephews, or younger cousins, or neighbor's kids. The point of the article was that the problem is here- in Will County. And if someone needs help, they don't need your nasty comments- Tom and Steve.
I know people who are or were drug addicts. NO I don't feel that bad for them. They CHOSE to try it! My one friend says that he was under pressure from friends and he does it the most when he is upset or stressed out....boo freaking hoo! We all have stresses and problems. You are dumb if you think that trying drugs is going to improve any of that! So where is he now? Been in and out of jail, has a hard time finding work because of his criminal history, his family got sick of him lying, stealing and the influence he was showing on the younger kids, and can't get loans for school because of his legal troubles. Yeah that really sounds like he reduced his stress!
APPARENLTY, programs like D.A.R.E. and "Just say no" are ineffective.
I'm not their parent, teacher, relative or friend so NO it's not my job to help them! I help and am involved with groups that help people who are sick, not because they were stupid enough to try drugs but because they were born with an illness or something unfortunate happened to them (that wasn't caused by stupidity). I will help our veterans, I will help cancer patients, people with MS, the elderly, and animals. I will spend my time helping people who deserve it!
The stigma of heroin that we have (by "we" I mean people born any time before around 1988 or so) is different from that held by today’s youth (although they do know about the former stigma). Snorting heroin is now closer to the stigma that smoking marijuana had in the 80s and 90s. Although I can't find recent data to show how many school-aged children in Will county have tried heroin, the Roosevelt University study and the following study show how and why heroin is on the rise in Will county: http://southwestcoalition.org/documents/Heroin%20Project%20Summary%20of%20Findings.pdf. It is reasonable for people to don’t know about the stigma shift to think that only idiots try heroin. People must operate with the information that they have, which often is little more than the stigma we were all handed and a few second-hand experiences. For those interested in going beyond, the above articles are a great place to start.