Poll: How to Curb Teen Heroin Use in the Suburbs?

The Illinois Crime Commission is proposing all first responders be given heroin overdose kits.

As fears over heroin use have diminished in recent years, the drug has become more potent, cheaper and no longer requires the user to inject it with a needle, according to the Chicago Tribune.  Access has also become easy for those living in the suburbs and has claimed many teenage lives. Heroin is readily available along a corridor know as "Heroin Highway" — at Interstates 290 and 88. Chicago gang members work with the Mexican cartels to get the drug, according to the Tribune.  To address this health concern, the Illinois Crime Commission proposed arming all first responders with heroin overdose rescue kits, which would contain a dose of Naloxone—an opiate overdose reversal drug—and a syringe, according to the Daily Herald.  They promoted…

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Rosecrance Health Network

11:28 am on Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Pat Spangler and Chris Yadron of Rosecrance talked about “The Suburban Heroin Epidemic” with Susan Wieneck on “MIX Matters,” a public affairs show that airs on Chicago’s 101.9 FM the MIX. http://www.rosecrance.org/listen-rosecrance-experts-talk-heroin-suburbs/   more ›

About Town

Teens and Marijuana: Are We Sending the Wrong Message?

Marijuana is easy to obtain, and even easier to justify now that it's legal in some states. Locally, Evanston has decriminalized small amounts. Opinion columnist Christine Wolf wonders what effect all this has on teenagers.

Last week, a friend with older kids mentioned how easy it is to buy marijuana at the high school. “It’s everywhere,” she said.  I’ve always heard phrases like, “It’s so easy to get drugs” or “You wouldn’t believe what goes on…” but now that I’m the mother of a high schooler, I’m listening a lot more closely. Personally, I didn’t take a lot of chances in high school (at least until I was a senior, but that’s another column altogether). As a freshman, I firmly believed alcohol and drugs would only weaken a laser-sharp focus on my two greatest interests: good grades and cute boys. My deepest fear was disappointing my parents and/or getting caught doing something that might jeopardize my future. My father, on the other hand, kept a Sucrets …

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june shellene

3:03 pm on Sunday, January 27, 2013

Another thought, is if we honored our children...if we didn't work so hard at amputating their right brain...their source of creativity and all the really cool things human beings have at their disposal, they wouldn't be dying to get the hell out of the hellish mental state our "educational" institutions pushes them into while marginalizing the kids who refuse to sit down and shut up and learn …   more ›

About Town

Newly Diagnosed With Diabetes

How one Evanston pre-teen and his family are coping.

Right about this time of year, I used to stress about finding winter coats and hats and mittens and sweaters.  Then last week, while checking email, a video of Nick Jonas (of the Jonas Brothers band) and his mother popped up on my monitor.  Denise Jonas discussed the day her son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  Later that day, as I was paying for my groceries at Dominick's, I noticed a diabetes screening station at the Customer Service desk.  The following day, two recent posts on Patch.com (Living Healthy With My Diabetes and Eating Healthy with Diabetes) caught my eye. November now has new meaning for me.  Until recently, I didn't know it was National Diabetes Awareness Month.    Whether you have the disease or not, there are …

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Christine Wolf

4:26 pm on Thursday, February 10, 2011

Gretchen, Thanks for letting us know your daughter's doing great after living with diabetes for ten years. Thanks, especially, for your helpful additions to the article.   more ›