Drug use: Illinois' Public Enemy No. 1

On an autumnal September day Capt. Dan McDevitt of the Illinois State Police was about to see the work ethic of three teenagers surface at a housing project in south suburban Robbins. "I was on my way to lunch and I got caught by a red light," relates McDevitt, the Zone 4 commander. "I saw three young entrepreneurs in a mad 50-yard dash to this customer, a white guy in a car. They almost knocked each other down to get to him and make the sale. All of them were 14, 15 years old."

Assuming that a gram of cocaine was sold, the successful salesman made a $100 transaction. He also completed the last step in the long chain of transactions that makes up the drug trade, a business that presidents and governors have promised to eliminate. In Illinois, Gov. James R. Thompson and the General Assembly have a drug-free initiative, earmarking $44.3 million for law enforcement ($18.9 million), treatment ($20.8 million) and education ($4.6 million) for fiscal 1990. In addition, state officials are expecting to receive almost $48 million from the federal government for treatment, education and enforcement.

Closing down the drug trade poses a considerable challenge. In Illinois, as elsewhere, drugs are used by all age groups from all economic levels of society. They have penetrated the home, the school and the workplace. Even as Illinois begins to implement its anti-drug initiative, there is no sure sense of how long it will take or how much it will cost. Nor is there, despite a multitude of statistics on various aspects of the problem, a precise picture of drug use in the state.

To get that picture, the Department of Alcohol and Substance Abuse (DASA) is conducting a comprehensive study of drug use by age (including youths in school and dropouts), sex, income, race and ethnic groups. The study will focus on the use of marijuana, cocaine, crack, inhalants, hallucinogens, PCPs, opiates, depressants and stimulants. It will also look at the availability of drugs in neighborhoods, their use during pregnancy or on the job and a person's perception of drug abuse by family, friends and co-workers. The report will be released next summer. "One of the things we've been lacking is some real concrete statistics to use on a regular basis that say so many people in Illinois are on drugs," said Tom Green, DASA's public information officer.

In the absence of a comprehensive report on drug use in Illinois, information from a variety of state and federal sources is available. These include statistics, extrapolations and projections from national surveys, and anecdotal accounts. As Roger Przybylski, a senior research analyst for the state's Criminal Justice Information Authority (CJIA), said: "It's tough to arrive at how bad the problem is because with drug use there are no victims to notify you what is going on."

Some victims are unable to say they are being affected. They are the unborn. In the last four years, says the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS), the number of confirmed cases of drug-affected babies has soared. In fiscal 1985, DCFS received 181 reports of drug-affected babies, with 122 cases confirmed. Since then, the figures are: 1986, 297 reported, 221 confirmed; 1987, 530 reported, 428 confirmed; 1988, 1,234 reported, 1,113 confirmed; 1989, 2,177 reported, 1,922 confirmed.

Jo Warfield, public information officer for DCFS, said the number of reported cases is expected to surpass 4,000 in 1990. Part of the reason for the expected increase is a new state law that deals directly with babies on drugs. The law (P.A. 86-274) which goes into effect January 1, redefines child neglect, making it easier to identify babies who have drugs in their systems. The new law permits DCFS to make a finding of neglect if blood or urine test shows the presence of a controlled substance. Until this law, a finding depended on the baby's showing symptoms of drug use.

Warfield points out that some women have put a new twist on baby showers. "It's not uncommon for women in some neighborhoods to take up a collection to get cocaine to ease the way through labor," she said. "It works; it does start labor and makes the mother high. Women see it as a way to over come the pain of labor."

Unborn infants are unable to make a choice to use drugs. Many people who can make their own decisions are choosing to take their chances with drugs. Crack – a concentrated form of cocaine — is an increasingly popular choice. A 1988 study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse estimated that 2.5 million people, aged 12 and over, had used it at least once and 500,000 had used it in the last month. Cocaine is second only to marijuana as the drug most preferred by young people, according to a national study by the University of Michigan in 1986. Using that study as the base, DASA projected the use of marijuana and cocaine by Illinois youths, aged 15-19, for 1990. For marijuana the estimates are:

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406,183 will have used it at least once; 309,625 will have used it in last 12 months, 186,732 in the last month and 31,929 daily. The estimated use of cocaine by the same group is: 134,862 will have used it at least once; 101,346 within the last 12 months; 49,476 in the last month and 3,192 daily. A problem with this survey is that if a student doesn't make it to high school, he won't be included. "Drug use among dropouts is much greater," says Przybylski.

What is known is that drugs and crime are closely associated. Usually, those arrested have some kind of drug in their systems. A study in Chicago by the Treatment Alternatives for Special Clients revealed that of 1,111 arrestees screened from October 1987 to July 1988, 80 percent tested positive for some kind of drug. Of those arrested, 60 percent had used cocaine.

Drug testing of arrestees in Chicago was conducted again in October of 1988. Over 200 were tested. The results were:

• 78 percent tested positive for some kind of drug, a 5 percent increase from October 1987.
• 69 percent tested positive for any drugs except marijuana, a 9 percent increase.
• 63 percent tested positive for cocaine, a 13 percent increase.

Further, says CJIA's Przybylski, statewide arrests of adults and juveniles for drug offenses — possession, delivery, manufacturing and trafficking — increased from 37,337 in 1987 to 46,910 in 1988. Every geographic area showed increases. Chicago's arrests of adults and juveniles for drug offenses in 1988 were 33,034, up from 24,937 in 1987. In the rest of Cook County and the collar counties of Lake, McHenry, DuPage, Kane and Will, there were 8,410 arrests in 1988, compared to 7,425 in 1987. The rest of the state made 5,466 arrests in 1988, compared to 4,975 in 1987.

According to its Trends and Issues 89, CJIA expects the number of adults arrested for drug offenses to reach 62,500 by 2000 — almost an 80 percent increase over the 34,900 arrested

'One of the things we've been lacking is some real concrete statistics to use on a regular basis in Illinois are on drugs' as diverse as the university

in 1987. The number of adult drug arrests is expected to surpass 40,000 by 1993 and 50,000 by 1997. (CJIA did not project juvenile arrests but says that in recent years juvenile drug arrests have equaled between 6 and 11 percent of the adult total.)

Drug offenses are the driving force behind prison overcrowding, said Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Fairchild. From 1983 to 1987, admissions to Illinois correctional institutions for drug offenses more than doubled, reaching 1,066.

The population in Illinois' prisons was up 7.1 percent for the first six months of 1989: 22,576 prisoners on June 30 compared to 21,081 on December 31, 1988. By September 30, 23,699 had been imprisoned with 2,787 incarcerated for drug crimes, according to Corrections. Although precise figures weren't available for those imprisoned for drug-related crimes, that category has increased by 200 percent since June 30, 1985, according to Corrections spokesman Nic Howell.

"The biggest part of the drug problem that most people don't realize is that it is just more than drugs," said McDevitt, who heads a group of 8-10 state policemen who interdict drugs in Cook County's south suburbs. "People who were involved in nothing but auto theft are now involved in drugs. The money is a lot quicker, dope is a lot easier to move than hot cars and the return is a lot better. Burglars hit homes to get items to sell to buy drugs. The biggest obstacle in fighting drugs is maybe the fact that it seems to be growing faster than we are. For every dealer we take off the streets, there are two or three lined up to take his place."

Then there are the drug users who don't get caught. Many have steady jobs and put themselves under the influence before or after they arrive at work. Not only do some, like operators of public transportation vehicles, endanger themselves and others but drug abusers are responsible for a massive economic cost to society. A 1983 study by the federal Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration reported that the economic cost to society for drug abuse in terms of unrealized productivity was believed to be over $33 billion. Besides lost productivity, there are costs related to absenteeism, accidents, health care, loss of trained personnel, theft, and prevention, treatment and deterrence programs. Further, a drug abuser in the workplace is over twice as likely to be absent as a non-user. The cost in terms of lost unemployment was $405 million. A more up-to-date study will be released in December.

DASA, extrapolating from a national study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, estimates that 10 percent, or 560,000 people, of the state's workforce suffer impaired job performance because of alcohol or drugs. Howard Parker, a human resource specialist with the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, said that in the Chicago area 15.8 percent of businesses are testing applicants for drugs. He also cited a national survey of employers in which 66 percent of those taking part cited substance abuse as the most critical workplace issue in 1989. Seventy-three percent reported they are addressing substance abuse. But that ranges from counseling to termination, said Parker.

The problem is so pervasive in the workplace that DASA offers the Employee Assistance Program to which businesses can refer employees. Treatment is paid for by the employers' insurance; if this is not adequate, the state and employer will negotiate to cover the costs. About a dozen firms in Springfield send employees to Triangle Center for treatment, said Steve Knox, Triangle's executive director. "This is not an inordinate amount for a city [of over 100,000]," Knox said. "The program is expanding all the time."

The Springfield Triangle Center is just one of 318 nonprofit treatment facilities that DASA licenses. In 1988, the last year

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for which figures are available, these centers provided drug and alcohol treatment to about 80,000 people, said DASA's Green. He said that 85,000 to 88,000 are expected to receive treatment for drug and alcohol problems in 1990. Many centers have waiting lists of at least 30 days, with some as long as 60, said Green. A statewide survey by DASA revealed that in June there were over 2,500 people on waiting lists. Green said a federal grant of $5.6 million to reduce the waiting lists will be received next year.

All these reports and statistics come at a time when some surveys claim that drug use is declining. A survey of households by the National Institute for Drug Abuse found that from 1985 to 1988 the number of people who had used illicit drugs had dropped by 8.5 million. CJIA's Przybylski believes the survey is accurate but offers this qualifier: "I believe that overall the number of people using drugs is decreasing but drug use is increasing among hardcore users," he said. "I think more drugs are out there, and people are into them heavier."

One Chicago-area statistic appears to confirm that statement. Between 1985 and 1987, cocaine-related admissions to 54 of 110 hospital emergency rooms in metropolitan Chicago rose from 714 to 2,285 — almost a fourfold increase, according to a study by the Drug Abuse Warning Network.

The drug problem, says State Trooper McDevitt, has "brought the country to its knees." But he and others involved in enforcement, education and treatment programs say the country doesn't have to be shamed. The cost, though, will be in the billions, perhaps trillions, spread quite possibly into the next century. Moreover, say the experts, there has to be a galvanized effort in the areas of enforcement, treatment and education.

CJIA's Barbara McDonald, who administers federal money to local and state law enforcement agencies, said it will take $100 million a year for Illinois to wage a full-scale war against drugs. All that money would be for law enforcement. She bases that figure on the projection of arrests for drug crimes by 2000. By a full-scale war she means "the entire continuum of law enforcement from tactical narcotics teams at the local level to multi-jurisdictional task forces." It also covers expansion of prisons, crime labs, prosecution units in Cook and the collar counties, support systems for rural counties and specialized drug courts, which need to be staffed "from judges on down."

Some of that $100 million, McDonald said, must be used to establish community-based programs for less serious offenders and set up drug-testing programs to ensure that those on bond and on probation remain clean. She said the governor's goal of a drug-free state is possible but it won't happen immediately. "After five years, we'll know how much progress we're making, and people will know we're committed. It's not going to be a cheap effort. But if we don't pay money now, the expense in terms of human suffering will be indescribable."

Fred Hess, the U.S. attorney for Southern Illinois, says that education will be pivotal. "This drug problem is going to be with us for a decade if history tells us anything," he said. "It's such a fluid problem it's going to be difficult to tie the ends together. It will be with us until we educate the youth about it. We need more prosecutors and more teachers to work together."

Says Triangle's Knox: "The effort is going to have to continue beyond where most efforts of this kind end. It's not a news flash. It's not like parents being concerned about sexy album covers. We hear about this for six months and then don't hear about it for a while. If the prevention effort is going to work, it has to be generational. That is where we're going to have to work so our children's children are better educated. We can get it to a manageable level, but the only way to do it is through proper treatment, education and prevention."

McDevitt believes that at the local level there has to be a galvanized effort between the church, school and family. "As those three have gone by the wayside, society has taken a downhill tumble," he said. "We wouldn't be having these problems if those three agencies were as effective as they once were. It starts with the family but people get tired of hearing it. But I tell you what, if a kid comes waltzing in the door with a $90 pair of Reeboks or a $200 troop jacket and his parents don't ask an 11- or 12-year-old 'Where did you get that; where did you get the money for that?' then I don't think they're very fit parents."

In appearances before community groups, McDevitt said he has tried to convey the message that parents have a responsibility. "But some parents don't want to hear it," he said. "We've seen several situations where they know exactly what the kid is doing but the kid is helping out at home and they won't do anything for fear of losing the income."

Perhaps a combined effort by church, school and family is working. Mona Whittaker, press officer for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, attributed the decline in drug use to "changes in people's attitudes about drugs and the perception of their harm. Public education has been involved in drug abuse prevention."

But money talks, especially in hard-core poverty-stricken communities, as evidenced by the actions of the three Robbins' teenagers. However, this community, which in September saw a 23-year-old man killed by a drug buyer's stray bullet, is saying that it has had enough. Ministers, teachers and law enforcement officials have joined together to try to drive out the drug dealers and provide help to users. The effort began with a march by about 200 people on September 25. Less than two weeks later, the organizer of the march, the Rev. James Cowthran Jr. of the Union Missionary Baptist Church, said the effort was already showing results.

"It's been a very slow process but [the drug sales] are not as prevalent and as open as they have been," said Cowthran, who got his motivation for the anti-drug crusade from a woman who witnessed a drug sale to two youths one Sunday morning. "She told me that at 11 a.m. on Sundays, when churches are having services, was the time when drug pushers did most of their work. I went on vacation to California and saw the same public display of drugs out there. I knew it was impossible to run away from. I knew that when I came back I had to do something about it and I called the other ministers."□

Pat Harrison, a former managing editor for the West Frankfort Daily American, is now in the Public Affairs Reporting Program at Sangamon State University.

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