1. Heroin, cocaine and marijuana seized by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) are
displayed at a press conference held by then-CPD Supt. Jody Weis in January 2010.
The Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy (ICDP) found that in 2011, Cook County
ranked highest for heroin use among arrested individuals. Photo: Kate Gardiner/Flickr.
2. The CDC website states that the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths in the U.S. nearly
quadrupled between 2002 and 2013, citing dependence on prescription opioid painkillers as the
leading factor in heroin addiction. Heroin usage rates are up across the country, most notably for
females, the privately insured and people with higher incomes, the CDC says.
Photo: Dimitris Kalogeropoylos/Flickr.
3. Heroin, an opiate which may be used through injection, goes by street names
including Big H, Black Tar, Hell Dust, Horse, Negra, Smack and Thunder, according to
the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Data from the Illinois Department of
Public Health (IDPH) shows that in 2014, heroin overdoses accounted for more than
half of all drug overdoses in Cook County. Photo: Vito Fun/Flickr.
4. Heroin use increased in Illinois from 2007 to 2012, while the state’s treatment capacity decreased
and its publicly funded treatment dropped to less than half the U.S. average, says the most recent
report by the ICDP. "If we want to make the heroin problem worse, we are headed in the right
direction," said Kathie Kane-Willis, director of the ICDP at Roosevelt University, in a 2015 edition of
The Economist. Photo: James Giroux/FreeImages.com.
5. Greater Chicago recorded 24,627 heroin-related emergency-room visits in 2011, the highest
number of these incidents in the U.S, The Economist reported. Rush University Medical Center
(above) provides addiction treatment including individual and group therapy, inpatient and
outpatient services and medication, the institution states on its website.
Photo: Nathan Hicks/Wikimedia Commons.
6. Ald. Edward Burke (middle) and Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin (right) held a news
conference in September 2015 after proposing a Chicago-Cook Task Force Against Heroin, an
effort to combat the deadly heroin epidemic through a combination of law enforcement,
treatment, prevention and education, according to DNAinfo. Ald. Ariel Reboyras (left) attended the
meeting. Photo: Ted Cox/DNAinfo.
7. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), a bill to boost funding for local and
national drug-abuse programs and provide greater access to the overdose-prevention drug
naloxone, passed on March 10, 2016. “Naloxone is saving lives in the Chicago suburbs every
day,” said U.S. Senator Mark Kirk. In Chicago’s suburbs, one person has died from a heroin
overdose every three days since 2012, Kirk’s website says. Photo: EMCDDA/YouTube.
8. At outreach sites across the city, the Chicago Recovery Alliance (CRA) offers free and legal
exchange of syringes, cotton, alcohol pads, health care referral and assistance, addiction treatment
and other services for reducing drug- and HIV-related harm, its website states. In its most recently
published annual recovery report, the CRA announced it delivered 294,630 safer injection kits in
2014. Photo: Todd Huffman/Flickr.
9. If you need help fighting heroin addiction or know someone who does, the National
Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recommends contacting The Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at 1-800-662-HELP or logging onto
www.findtreatment.samhsa.gov to find local treatment options. Photo: Robin Wirt/Flickr.
