Heroin use claimed the lives of six people in Naperville last year, police told hundreds of parents who packed an informational forum Monday night.
Naperville police and a drug addictions counselor presented a talk on the lethal drug to a crowd so large they had to make a last-minute decision to add a second presentation, a welcome challenge for organizers.
“It’s something that before no one wanted to talk about,” Detective Mike Umbenhower said. “There was a lot of denial going on. We need to get past that stigma and hit the issue head on because that’s going to be the only way we’re going to tackle it.”
He said heroin is cheap and addictive. For Naperville residents it is easily accessible by taking what they called the “heroin highway” – Interstate 88 to Interstate 290 – to Chicago’s west side to score drugs.
Heroin made up 9 percent of narcotics arrests in Naperville between 2009 and 2011, second to cannabis at 74 percent. The number of heroin arrests reached 47 last year, double what they were in 2009, according to police.
Among Naperville teens, there was a 78 percent increase in felony drug arrests in 2011 over the previous year and a 450 percent increase in heroin arrests during that time.
Umbenhower said the city’s south side in particular has been “ground zero right now for the heroin problem.”
Police stressed the significance of who teens befriend as well as parent communication and showed graphic crime scene photos of young people who overdosed on drugs and died. There were seven drug deaths in Naperville in 2011. Of those, six were from heroin, police said.
“That’s somebody’s baby on somebody’s knee,” Detective Shaun Ferguson said as the pictures flashed across the screen. “Somebody watched this kid walk across the graduation stage. Somebody watched this kid walk for the first time in his life. It’s disturbing stuff and it all could have been prevented.”
Drug and alcohol addictions counselor Kimberly Groll presented potential signs of drug use including fatigue, frequent illness, red and glassy eyes, mood swings, irresponsible behavior, paranoia, lying and decreased interest in family and school. She and the officers encouraged parents to talk to their children and to each other.
“I cannot tell you or stress to you how important it is as parents to stay united,” Umbenhower told the crowd. “To stick together, to communicate, to set limits to stick to limits and to hold people accountable for it.”
Ferguson also reminded them to be their child’s parent, not their friend.
“Trust but verify,” he said. “Trust your kids until get to point can’t trust them anymore then you verify.”
Larry Grogan of Glendale Heights was in the audience and knows all too well where heroin addiction leads. Grogan said his son Paul died of a heroin overdose in November at the age of 26 while in between treatment programs. Grogan said Paul battled the disease of drug addiction for 10 years. With felonies on his record, he couldn’t get a job and was depressed and bored. He hopes young people will get the message that “once is all it takes.”
“Just know that one time can get you addicted,” he said. “And one felony can ruin your life.”
Rebecca Thorne of Naperville has three children ranging from 13 to 24 and is scared to see drug troubles issues starting at a younger age in the community.
“We have to do something,” she said. “We can’t keep standing by and saying oh it’s not my kid. … We’re a community. We have to come together and ask what can we do to solve this.”
