By JIM SUHR
April 6, 2014
washingtontimes.com
In a June 5, 2012 photo, a heroin pouch lays next to a sidewalk on Chicago’s Homan Avenue. Some states, including Illinois, are reporting a rise in heroin use as many addicts shift from more costly and harder-to-get prescription opiates to this cheaper alternative.
ST. LOUIS (AP) – Some states, including Illinois, are reporting a rise in heroin use as many addicts shift from more costly and harder-to-get prescription opiates to this cheaper alternative. A look at what’s happening in Illinois:
THE PROBLEM: Coroners from the Chicago area to St. Louis’ Illinois suburbs say heroin overdose deaths have spiked in recent years, given the relative cheapness, purity, potency and broad availability of the drug.
“We have to firmly get out the message that heroin is a highly addictive drug that will kill you,” said Richard Jorgensen, coroner of suburban Chicago’s DuPage County, where the number of heroin deaths has nearly doubled since 2011.
THE NUMBERS: Citing death certificates, the Illinois Department of Public Health says the number of accidental heroin-related deaths statewide climbed from 95 in 2008 to 140 by 2010, the last year such totals are available. In Cook County, the state’s most populous, the medical examiner’s office says heroin in 2013 accounted for 224 deaths, or 60 percent of the 377 total opiate-linked deaths. Figures for other years are not available because the county only began testing specifically for heroin last year.
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