Buffalo Grove police team with anti-heroin group to offer treatment, prevention

Buffalo Grove police are teaming with Live4Lali, Inc., a social service nonprofit agency, to build awareness about the abuse of heroin and other opioids in the community and provide resources for treatment, the police department announced Wednesday.

"The fact is that opioid overdoses affect every community in Illinois, regardless of its geographic location," the department states in a news release announcing the collaboration. "The only real method to avoid a further loss of life from this disease is to prevent an overdose in an emergency and follow up with proper treatment and education."

As part of the effort, Buffalo Grove police officers are being equipped with the opiate antidote naloxone, which can reverse the effects of a heroin overdose. Officers and deputies from several other suburban law enforcement agencies, including the Lake County Sheriff's Office, Naperville Police Department and Deerfield Police Department, have deployed naloxone in recent months to prevent potentially fatal overdoses.

Arlington Heights-based Live4Lali is dedicated to overdose treatment, prevention and education. The organization was formed by Chelsea Laliberte after her younger brother, Alex, died in 2008 after a heroin overdose in the family's Buffalo Grove home. He was 20 years old.

Live4Lali will work with Buffalo Grove police to provide overdose victims the treatment and educational components necessary to avoid relapse, police said. The group also will provide support for victims' families on an on-call basis. The agency has the requisite experience, skills and training critical for the long-term success of this campaign, police said.