{"id":32001,"date":"2016-02-24T14:32:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T20:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=32001"},"modified":"2016-03-02T11:34:45","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T17:34:45","slug":"overprescribed-and-underfunded-illinois-surge-in-overdose-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/overprescribed-and-underfunded-illinois-surge-in-overdose-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"Overprescribed and underfunded: Illinois\u2019 surge in overdose deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jack Adams, Talia Beechick and Madison Hopkins<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris Nielsen\u2019s future looked bright. A senior in high school, he played catcher on his school\u2019s baseball team in a Chicago suburb and was offered a full scholarship to play the sport at Michigan State University. But at age 17, after his first knee surgery, he was prescribed Percocet and Dulotin to help ease post-surgery pain.<\/p>\n

Nielsen grew up around drugs. Both of his parents were addicted to heroin, and his father died from an overdose when Nielsen was just a few years old, he said. His uncles also used, and drugs and addicts became common fixtures in Nielsen\u2019s childhood.<\/p>\n

“I was physically and sexually abused when I was a kid,” he said. He went to live with his grandmother where he kept his distance from drugs until his knee surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care what anybody says, it\u2019s freaking genetic,\u201d Nielsen said, sitting on a couch at a Gateway Treatment Center in Chicago. \u201cI have no kids, but I\u2019m glad I don\u2019t, because I ended that cycle in my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many before him, Nielsen found his way to heroin from using prescription drugs. Now, he is 35 years old and has overdosed three times from painkillers and heroin. Nielsen is one of several recovering addicts we spoke with at a Gateway Treatment Center in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Overdose death rates have exploded across the country during the past several years, with a boom in heroin and prescription drug use widely credited as the drivers of this lethal trend. Between 2000 and 2014, the rate of deaths from drug overdose increased by 137 percent nationally. In Illinois, the average age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths increased by nearly 66 percent, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).<\/p>\n

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The Chicago metropolitan area ranked first in the U.S. for emergency room visits related to heroin use.<\/p>\n

-Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Data from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) shows that in 2014, more than half of all overdose deaths in Cook County involved heroin. At the same time, state funding for addiction treatment has dropped, resulting in a dramatic loss of treatment capacity, especially in rural communities.<\/p>\n

Illinois overdose deaths by selected drug<\/h2>\n

[field name=”oddeaths”]<\/p>\n

Chart: Overdose death reports may include more than one type of drug in a person’s system. (Madison Hopkins\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

\u201cUltimately those who start heroin often had their introduction to opiates with prescription drugs,\u201d said Sally Thoren, executive director of Gateway\u2019s West Side location. \u201cWhether that gets expensive or suspicious, heroin becomes a cheap alternative. That\u2019s the progression we\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Dr. Scott Cooper, president of the Illinois State Medical Society, isn\u2019t convinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an alarming crisis that we\u2019re having deaths from heroin overdose,\u201d said Cooper. \u201cWhether there\u2019s a perfect link between that and narcotics, I\u2019m not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does Dr. Cooper think about prescription drugs and heroin?<\/em><\/p>\n

[vimeo 156597005 w=474]<\/p>\n

Dr. Scott Cooper of the Illinois State Medical Society discusses the potential link between prescription drugs and heroin. (Jack Adams\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

\n\u201cTHIS IS WHAT’S BEEN MISSING\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2013, a young boy found a body lying in the men\u2019s bathroom at Savers, a thrift store in Chicago. It was Kyle Forgue, with a needle stuck in his arm. He didn\u2019t appear to be breathing.<\/p>\n

Forgue, suffering his second heroin overdose, was 18 years old. Paramedics arrived on the scene and administered Narcan, the brand-name for naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an overdose instantly.<\/p>\n

Click on the animation below to learn more about opiate overdoses, withdrawal symptoms, and Narcan.<\/em><\/p>\n

[vimeo 156577182 w=474]<\/p>\n

Narcan reverses an opioid overdose by unblocking receptors and allowing normal neural signals to resume. Produced by Next Media. (Talia Beechick\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

Forgue also found heroin at the end of a long journey of moving from drug to drug. He began drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana at age 12, and at 14 he and a friend began stealing painkillers\u2014Norco and fentanyl\u2014from his friend\u2019s father. By age 15, he was shooting up heroin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was already addicted to painkillers to begin with\u2014it\u2019s a really expensive habit,\u201d said Forgue, now 21. \u201cBuying 15 Narcos and doing them all at once, barely getting high off it\u2014I found out that heroin was a lot cheaper. First time I tried it, it just felt like a big relief \u2026 like this is what\u2019s been missing my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several of the residents at Gateway echoed this experience. Heroin made them feel complete, like the best possible versions of themselves, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like God reached down and grabbed my heart,\u201d said Bryant O\u2019Malley, 21. \u201cThis is the feeling I\u2019ve been missing my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, the drug hooks its users in a cycle of dependency. O\u2019Malley said his use of heroin \u201cskyrocketed\u201d after his first time. Eventually he was injecting every day, until he was charged with 11 felonies in 2014, including \u201ccar hopping\u201d and drug possession.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt felt like God reached down and grabbed my heart. This is the feeling I\u2019ve been missing my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

-Bryant O\u2019Malley, 21.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI did a year in prison and I told myself, \u2018You\u2019re not going to do heroin anymore,\u2019\u201d O\u2019Malley recounted, noting that he used other drugs, marijuana and Xanax, while in jail. \u201cWhen I got out of prison, I relapsed nine days later.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley said that he was no longer using the drug to feel high, but to avoid symptoms of withdrawal. Without heroin, he felt extremely ill, making it difficult to function and keep a job without consistently using.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked for a pool company, and I would just use in the morning and use while I was at work, just to feel normal so I wasn\u2019t sick,\u201d O\u2019Malley said. \u201cJust so I could work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danny Cervantes, 22, agreed. \u201cWhen I had it, it was like a mom\u2019s hug and when I didn\u2019t, it was like my dad slapped me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Described by Thoren as \u201cthe world\u2019s worst flu, times 10,\u201d Gateway residents agreed that withdrawal from heroin was almost too difficult to bear without medication, such as Suboxone or methadone, to ease the transition. Both replace the drug and help frequent users detox more comfortably.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe withdrawals\u2026\u201d O\u2019Malley\u2019s voice trailed off, a shadow passing across his face. \u201cYou feel like you\u2019re dying. You get cold sweats, some people throw up, you get diarrhea, you can\u2019t sleep, and you get seizures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cervantes had a friend who killed himself late last year, potentially from trying to quit heroin on his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they found him, he was just in an alley, on the stairs,\u201d Cervantes explained. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure he was withdrawing. I don\u2019t know if he couldn\u2019t take it or what, but he shot himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

All nine of the Gateway residents interviewed for this article knew at least one person, if not two or three, who had overdosed. Many of them died as a result.
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\nA PLAN FOR CHANGE<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Sept. 2, 2015, Illinois lawmakers overturned Gov. Bruce Rauner\u2019s veto of the Heroin Crisis Act, a law designed to address opioid abuse and addiction in the state.<\/p>\n

Addiction treatment advocates have hailed the law, saying once it’s fully implemented, it would be a huge step in the right direction toward fixing Illinois\u2019 perilous situation with drug addiction treatment. Some key elements of the law, House Bill 1, include:<\/p>\n