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Prescription drug abuse

Chicago leads the nation in heroin-related emergency room visits, according to a newspaper report that showed a 176 percent increase from 1995 to 2002.

Chicago is the only city in the U.S. that receives heroin from all four global sources, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, Mexico and South America, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

“Heroin today is cheaper than a pack of cigarettes” at less than $1 a hit, Talbot said. At the same time, a traditional $10 “dime bag” is as much as 10 times more potent than it was in the 1980s, he said.

Children have been caught using “cheese heroin,” a mixture of heroin with over-the-counter drugs such as Benadryl or Tylenol PM. The drug is highly addictive, authorities say.

Inhalant abuse, or “huffing,” is on the rise. A March 2007 report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 4.5 percent of children between 12 and 17 abused an inhalant during the past year.

Springfield police have made several huffing arrests in the past. In July 2005 two men were arrested for huffing gold paint after neighbors complained to police about a strong odor of paint coming from their apartment.

In November of 2004 a dozen high school students from the Illinois School for the Deaf were taken to the hospital after they were caught sniffing fumes from cleaning chemicals and cans of air used to clean keyboards.

According to statistics, women are more likely to sniff solvents and glue; men are more likely to huff nitrous oxide.

Marijuana use continues among teenagers. More teens sought rehabilitation for marijuana abuse than any other drug, including alcohol, according to a 2006 report by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Authorities also have discovered teens smoking “fry” — marijuana cigarettes dipped in formaldehyde. In 2005, three cases of fry abuse were reported in the Rockford area. The three victims were one teenager and two adults, all of whom sought treatment at the hospital.

Talbot said one of the most frightening trends is that children are experimenting with drugs at earlier ages.

“We don’t expect this late-stage, hard-core drug addiction to be happening until their 30s,” he said. “Heroin has moved from a late-stage drug to a high school gateway drug. We used to look for beer on high school kids on traffic stops. Now we have to look for heroin packets.”

What you can do:

• Educate children about the dangers of drug abuse.
• Set house rules regarding drug use and enforce them.
• “You just have to be involved in your kids’ lives,” said Springfield police officer Mark Houston, the agency’s DARE officer.
• “Know where they’re at and what they’re doing. Keeping them active in sports or music or whatever is one of the best things you can do.

Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with approximately 75,000 deaths per year.1 Alcohol is a factor in approximately 41% of all deaths from motor vehicle crashes.2 Among youth, the use of alcohol and other drugs has also been linked to unintentional injuries, physical fights, academic and occupational problems, and illegal behavior.3 Long-term alcohol misuse is associated with liver disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurological damage as well as psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety, and antisocial personality disorder.4 Drug use contributes directly and indirectly to the HIV epidemic, and alcohol and drug use contribute markedly to infant morbidity and mortality.4 As of 1988, all states prohibit the purchase of alcohol by youth under the age of 21 years.

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