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Our Village, Our News
OCTOBER 31, 2012
Vol. 4 No. 48
Lives Tragic Lessons Forum helps to raise awareness, educate community of heroin epidemic By Robin Ambrosia Staff Reporter
T
he face of heroin has changed. Heroin users are between the ages of 18 to 24, every gender and race as well as every socio-economic background. It is no longer just an inner city urban problem but is a suburban problem, too. In 2012, there have been four heroin overdose deaths to date in Downers Grove and 30 in DuPage County. Those in attendance at a recent heroin forum held at Downers Grove North High School last week learned about how a parent turns their son’s tragic death into a community awareness mission, the Robert Crown Center has updated heroin data and new laws have been created to deter selling heroin to minors.
Community Awareness Billy
Roberts
died
on
September 20, 2009, of a drug overdose at the age of 19 soon after his first time experimenting with this drug. My wife and I responded quickly to help Billy with his heroin use,” Roberts said. “But before we knew it, he was gone. He died of a drug overdose just that quickly. That’s how powerful and potent this drug is.” After Billy’s death, his father, John Roberts, became devoted to community awareness about the heroin epidemic. In 2010, Roberts co-founded Heroin Epidemic Relief Organization with Brian Kirk, whose son Matt also died of a heroin overdose in 2009 at the age of 18. He was a senior in high school. According to Roberts, the number of heroin deaths in the collar counties has doubled over the past five years. “Our mission is to offer support, understanding and encouragement to families who have lost a loved one to heroin
overdose,” Roberts said. “We devote a great deal of time to community awareness of this war. We strongly support drug education in our schools, drug prevention and we are involved in advocacy in support of new drug laws.We need new ideas to finally win this war.
Education “We have to reduce the demand through education because if we wait until the child is in a vulnerable position to try the drug, we lose,” Kathleen Burke, Chief Executive Officer for the Robert Crown Center for Health Education. According to Burke, research indicates three reasons kids use drugs. The first is that kids are fighting emotional distress, which we can identify and help them handle. “Communication is the key,” Burke said. “Kids use drugs to self-medicate.” The second is the problem
of addiction to pain pills in this country. “We find that kids transition from pain pills to heroin because it is easier to get, cheaper and a stronger high,” Burke said. “People go from use to abuse to addiction.” And the third reason is transition. Kids are most vulnerable when moving into different social situations. “So when your children are starting middle school and they are all of a sudden around a whole new group of kids then their social groups change,” Burke said. “When that change occurs, what’s most important for them is to fit into the new social structure. The transition to high school is even more traumatic because again they are trying to fit in with kids they don’t know especially in the large suburban.” The Robert Crown Center is partnering with Rush University to support health education teachers by giving them the most up to date information to
take to the classroom. “We helped develop more appropriate, up-to-date content about how heroin affects your brain.” Burke said. Through its research, the center has come to realize that young people want information that is relevant and real. They don’t want to be told to just say no or just that drugs are bad for them.
New laws and parental involvement According to DuPage County States Attorney Robert Berlin, in 2012, there have been 30 overdose deaths due to heroin in DuPage County, which has surpassed 2011 when there was 27. “It is an epidemic, it is a crisis,” Berlin said. According to the DEA, heroin elicits a gradual and sustained increase in dopamine, which See HEROIN, page 2