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Daily Egyptian MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015 VOLUME 99 ISSUE 5
Chancellor search co-chairs named, committee forming
Illinois traffic fatalities down despite higher speed limit Brian Brueggemann Belleville News-Democrat
Illinois’ traffic fatalities went down in 2014, even though the speed limit went up. There were 926 people killed on Illinois roadways last year, compared to 991 in 2013. The drop happened even though the speed limit on interstates in non-urban areas increased from 65 mph to 70 mph at the start of the year. Highway-safety proponents and even the head of the state’s Department of
Transportation opposed the higher speed limit, on grounds that it would cause more deaths. But state Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton, who sponsored the legislation that increased the speed limit, said he doubted it would lead to more fatalities. Costello said he studied what happened when other states increased the speed limit. “In all of those, the fatalities seemed to go down when they raised the speed limit,” Costello said. “The biggest factor, in my
mind, after analyzing the data, is disparity in speed. Disparity causes accidents. When there’s a disparity in speed, more times than not, it’s the slower car that causes accidents.” Costello said traffic on interstates flows at about 72 mph, on average, so drivers who obey a 65 mph speed limit end up creating more disparity. “What happens is, the people who are abiding by the law are the ones who are causing and getting into more accidents,” he said.
Literature by the lake
Luke Nozicka
@LukeNozicka | Daily Egyptian
Early stages of finding a chancellor have begun. President Randy Dunn, who assumed chancellor duties after Chancellor Paul Sarvela died Nov. 9, said Rehabilitation Institute Director Carl Flowers and psychology Chairwoman Meera Komarraju have been named co-chairs of the Chancellor Search Advisory Committee. He said about 18 people are being asked to join the committee. “I would hope that within a few days we would be able to announce those committee members,” Dunn said in an interview Friday. Internal and external candidates can apply for the position. “We want to be very thoughtful about investing time and effort to help identify a good pool across the nation,” Dunn said. “That work is underway right now to try to identify some of those individuals who might be good matches to ensure that they’re aware of the position.” The committee will choose as many as four or five finalists, whom will be invited to visit the campus once chosen, Dunn said. Please see CHANCELLOR · 3
J ayson H olland • d aily E gyptian Bamidele Falola, a doctoral candidate in engineering science from Nigeria, takes advantage of nice weather Wednesday by reading the book “Christian Beliefs” by Wayne A. Grudem at Campus Lake.
Talk warns of heroin use increase Austin Miller
@AMiller_DE | Daily Egyptian
Sarah Wolfson is back on her horse. Wolfson rode and trained horses throughout high school, but five years ago as an SIU student, Wolfson had an accident while riding, severely hurting both of her knees. To relieve her pain, she was prescribed Vicodin. Her doctor took her off the pain medication after a few months, leaving her in withdrawal. Wolfson then took to the streets to find a new source of Vicodin, and after a while found it to be too expensive. She dropped out of SIU and became one of 4.2 million Americans who have used heroin at least once, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Heroin, an opiate synthesized from morphine, is a naturally occurring substance found in the poppy plant. As of 2011, 23 percent of users in the United States are dependent on the drug, according to the NIDA. According to a presentation Thursday at John A. Logan College, 90 percent of heroin consumed in the U.S. is from South America and Mexico. No matter where it starts, there is an increasing amount of the opiate ending up in
southern Illinois. Because of this, Centerstone, a behavioral treatment facility, decided to sponsor the event, according to Kathryn Sime, development and communications manager. Centerstone, in Carterville, provides behavioral healthcare and addiction recovery programs. Wolfson receives treatment from Centerstone as
part of her treatment. Sime said she asked her colleagues what topic the conference should discuss and was surprised so many people said heroin and opiate addiction. U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Wigginton, the event’s keynote speaker, said most users are similar to Wolfson by starting out using prescription drugs.
Wigginton, who serves the 38 southernmost counties in Illinois, has spoken to thousands of students as part of an anti-heroin initiative he started in 2011. He said there were 279 million prescriptions written in 2010 for opiate-based medications for 308 million citizens, according to that year’s census. From 1997 to 2007, there was a 402 percent increase in use of prescription opioids per person—from 74 milligrams to 369 milligrams. “Nearly one [prescription] for every man, woman and child in America,” Wigginton said. “You tell me we don’t have a problem.” Seventy percent of prescription painkiller abusers obtained the pills from friends or relatives, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Since a cocaine shortage in 2008, Wigginton said heroin has become America’s most popular drug. Heroin was much cheaper than prescription pills, Wolfson said. Wigginton said prescription drugs sell for about $1 per milligram, while heroin cost $100 to $150 per gram, meaning one gram of Vicodin can cost about $1,000. “It takes a lot more pills to get the same high, so you can spend $300 a day on pills or spend $100
a day on heroin,” he said. As part of preventing the drug from spreading, the Drug Enforcement Administration buys heroin to find how it is moving around. The DEA buys heroin 640 times annually in St. Louis, Wigginton said. One thing the DEA has found is the purity of heroin has increased. In 2001, heroin had an average purity of 13 percent, which in 2013 increased to 43 percent, Wigginton said. The higher the purity, the higher the risk of addiction and overdose. There were 310 heroin overdose deaths in St. Louis in 2011, compared to 65 heroin deaths in 2007. “If you have 401 deaths from the flu, that’s a national crisis,” Wigginton said. “You would see the city shut down and the CDC come in.” St. Clair County, just east of St. Louis, had 26 overdose deaths in 2013. Men made up 69 percent of those deaths, 77 percent of them were white and the average age was 42. Even though a middle-aged man was the average heroin user in St. Clair County, one in five teenagers has abused prescription drugs, Wigginton said. Please see HEROIN · 2