Drug forum today in Buffalo Grove

A community forum focusing on drug abuse will be held at 7 p.m. today in Buffalo Grove.

The forum, which is expected to last until 9 p.m., will be held at the Alcott Center, 530 Bernard Drive.

It is billed as an effort to increase the awareness and understanding of drug activity and its consequences among parents of high-school-age students.

But it is expected that a special emphasis will be placed on heroin addiction, because of the involvement of recently elected Buffalo Grove Trustee Lisa Stone.

Heroin usage in Buffalo Grove was brought to the attention of voters in the recent village board election as a result of Stone and her campaign team, who made the issue one of the cornerstones of the campaign.

Tonight's forum is being held in conjunction with Buffalo Grove and Stevenson high schools, both of which serve Buffalo Grove.

"All of the high schools need to be aware and take notice. I think Buffalo Grove is raising the bar, showing a certain leadership that other communities, I believe, will follow," Stone said.

Buffalo Grove Police Chief Steve Balinski has helped coordinate the effort leading up to the forum, gathering together several agencies to participate in the awareness initiative, Stone said.

Those agencies are the Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group, the Lake County Coroner's office, the Lake County States Attorney's office and the Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Laboratory.

"It's a rare opportunity to have these agencies all together speaking to this issue and helping to educate and alert us to what we can do to try to stop this in our community," Stone said, who added that heroin usage is a serious issue but that parents often don't know the signs that their children may be involved.

The issue has concerned Congressman Mark Kirk, who in an April statement, noted that at least 20 Lake County residents have died from high-purity heroin this year.

He particularly called attention to the Dec. 15 death of 20-year-old Buffalo Grove resident Alex Laliberte and leveled blame at Mexican drug cartels, citing information provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that shows three of them operate in the Chicago area.

He said The Border Reinforcement and Violence Reduction Act, which he is backing, would provide additional resources to federal and local law enforcement agencies to crack down on the weapons trafficking that empowers the cartels, thus limiting their ability to bring heroin into the United States.

Stone said community awareness is important. "When kids are dying in your community, you certainly need to know it." She also said that the forum is not an isolated event. "It's an ongoing effort."