700 gather to talk about drugs

Editor's note: This story originally ran on Jan. 30, 2002 as part of the Daily Herald's "Hidden Scourge: Heroin in the Suburbs" series.

One man told the audience of overdosing five times on heroin before being arrested - a moment he calls the answer to his prayers.

His mother recalled how she prayed over her son's hospital bed the night of his first overdose, and how she pledged not to let the drugs win.

Another mother - this one not so blessed - told of learning too late that her daughter was using illegal club drugs.

A Kane County judge said it was the death of another young person that prompted him to start a court anti-drug program that combines law enforcement and treatment.

Though the details of their stories differ, each of the panelists at a community forum on drugs sponsored by the Daily Herald on Tuesday night agreed on one central point: Drugs are taking hold of too many lives in the suburbs and, to fight them, it will take a communitywide effort.

"If you think it can't happen to your son or daughter, your brother or sister, or your mom or dad, you're sorely mistaken, because it can happen to anybody," said Scott McDonald, a 24-year-old recovering heroin addict from St. Charles who has seen at least nine friends die from heroin overdoses. "While we have a chance to do something about it, I pray we do before we lose anybody else."

About 700 people attended the nearly three-hour forum and question-and-answer session at the Arcada Theater in St. Charles. Many were parents and their children. Others were police officers, social workers and educators. Several dozen identified themselves as recovering drug addicts.

The forum was sponsored as a follow-up to a four-day series that appeared in the Daily Herald late last year titled "The Hidden Scourge: How heroin and club drugs have taken root in the suburbs."

In the series, the Daily Herald reported that at least 13 suburban young people have died from heroin or club drugs in the past two years. So far this year, the newspaper has learned of at least two other young people who have overdosed on illegal drugs, Daily Herald Projects Editor Madeleine Doubek told the crowd.

"Every single one of those young men and women represent lost potential," Doubek said. "We're here tonight to help all of us work on strategies to prevent more people from dying. ...We don't want to see any more potential lost."

Several panel members urged parents to educate themselves about drugs, to talk to their children - and listen to them - and to look for warning signs of drug use.

"Talk early, and talk often," said Carol Falkowski, a federal drug researcher and the director of research communications at the Minnesota-based Hazelden Foundation. "Kids don't need a lecture, they need to be listened to."

Courtney Barkei, a 21-year-old recovering heroin addict who grew up in Batavia, told audience members she started using alcohol, then drugs, as a teenager as a way of dealing with feelings of depression and anxiety. A former high school cheerleader who by all accounts came from "a good family," Barkei has seven felony convictions ranging from theft to forgery on her record, and has spent time in three county jails.

"I used heroin to cover up those feelings I didn't know what to do with," Barkei said. "Teach your children that it's OK to feel and it's OK to express those feelings."

Kate Patton, a Rolling Meadows resident whose daughter, Kelley Baker, died of an Ecstasy overdose in 1999, urged parents to become "information junkies" about drugs.

"We go to the grocery store very prepared with a grocery list in hand," Patton said. "But are we as prepared to talk to our kids about drugs?"

Among the warning signs that a young person might be using drugs, Falkowski said, are: a change in peer group; a change in interests and hobbies; an increase in defensiveness; a change in personal hygiene, sleeping or eating patterns; abrupt mood swings; and stealing and lying.

Noting that most drug users get drugs from friends, not faceless dealers, St. Charles Police Chief Donald Shaw also urged parents to often ask their children where they're going, who they're going with, and to pay attention to the people their kids are spending time with.

Shaw and Kane County Circuit Court Judge James Doyle, who directs the county's drug court, stressed that law enforcement alone cannot solve the problem of illegal drug use.

"We need information, we need your assistance, we need dialogue like this," Shaw said.

Doyle, who requires frequent drug tests and a minimum 90-day stay in a treatment center for many offenders, said: "We are facing a terrible epidemic, and it has been uncovered. ...Now we have to go after it. It's a disease, and we have to treat it like a disease."

Scott McDonald's mother, Linda McDonald, encouraged parents and users to ask for help, and to not be ashamed or embarrassed if a child or other family member has a problem with drugs.

"We all have choices," McDonald said. "Our choice is for hope and not defeat."