Opioid Epidemic in Illinois
In my previous posts, I have mentioned national
statistics and even shared personal stories from people directly impacted from
other areas within the United States.
This time around, I decided to check out specifics about Illinois. In Illinois, more people have died from drug
overdoses related to heroin and prescription opioids in 2014 than as a result
of homicide or motor vehicle crashes (Illinois Department of Public Health [IDPH],
2017). The Illinois drug overdose rate
is 13.1 per 100,000 people. This makes
Illinois the 35th ranked state for highest drug overdose rates
(IDPH, 2017). States worse than Illinois
include Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Illinois was one of fourteen states to have a
significant increase in drug overdose deaths between 2013 and 2014 (IDPH, 2017). Cook County ranks first in the entire nation
for the percentage of arrests related to opioid abuse. The Chicago Metropolitan area is also ranked
first in the nation for heroin use (IDPH, 2017). Interstate 290 stretches from Chicago to Kane
County where people of all socioeconomic statuses are traveling to Chicago’s
west side as many as three times a day to purchase heroin (Casas, 2017). Most of the heroin sold today has been mixed
with fentanyl (Casas, 2017). The problem
with mixing heroin and fentanyl together is that there is no way to determine
how much is heroin and how much is fentanyl (Casas, 2017). Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more deadly than
heroin (Casas, 2017). Coles County is
among the highest of all counties in Illinois to have an increased number of
emergency department visits related to opioid or heroin overdoses from 2010 to
2015 (IDPH, 2017).
References
Casas,
Gloria. (2017) Heroin highway between Kane and Chicago thriving. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-aurora-heroin-st-0330-20170329-story.html
Illinois Department of
Public Health. (2017). Prescription opioids and heroin Illinois department of public health data. Retrieved from http://www.dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/prevention wellness/prescription-opioids-and-heroin/idph-data
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