Illinois State Crime Commission Produces First Of Anti-Heroin Ads

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 16, 2013 1:30PM

Below is the first of a series of videos produced by the Illinois State Crime Commission/Police Athletic League of Illinois aimed at raising awareness on what they call an "epidemic" of heroin use across the area. Illinois State Crime Commission executive director Jerry Elsner said 15 deaths attributed to heroin overdoses in a 17-day period In DuPage County.

DuPage County is one end of a stretch of I-290 known as the "heroin highway" for the ease with which drug users can find a score along the West Side neighborhoods the expressway intersects. One aspect of the "epidemic" Elsner doesn't mention is the overcrowding of prisons and the costs of incarceration from mandatory sentencing for drug crimes. A March article in the Chicago Reporter found 5,761 convictions in Cook County between 2000 and 2011, costing Illinois taxpayers an estimated $220 million in incarceration costs.

Elsner said the video would be made available at no charge by police, educators and public health officials. "We must be prepared for the inevitable repercussions of the heroin epidemic."

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