Huntley Resident Getting Out Facts About Heroin, Addictions, Deaths

The number of heroin deaths in McHenry County is disturbing to Huntley resident Jeannine Garriepy.

Deaths increased from six to 15 over a three-year period, up 150 percent, according to a Roosevelt University’s Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy study. The Robert Crown Center for Health Education commissioned the study.

“I mean, that’s crazy,” Garriepy said of the figures.

“What we’ve come to know is there is not a face of heroin,” she said. “It’s not the homeless person. It’s not the black person. It’s not the Mexican person. It’s not the white person. It can be anyone.”

Garriepy lost her brother, John Yost, to a heroin overdose in 2009. He was 30 years old. He had a heroin addiction for years, going in and out of rehab. But she said heroin had a hold on him.

Since his death, she’s tried to find answers. She has none. What she’s done is dedicate herself to telling his story in hopes it will help others.

Garriepy recently joined the Robert Crown Center, located in Hinsdale, and is a member of its Family Advisory Group. The group meets monthly to discuss the issue of heroin in the suburbs.

The center recently hosted a forum on heroin in the suburbs and discussed the results of Roosevelt’s study.

Some facts from that study:

• Among 20 to 24 year olds, from 1998 to 2007, hospital discharges for heroin use increased more than 200 percent in the collar counties, according to the U.S. Department of Justice
• A National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health found initiations to heroin increased 80 percent since 2002.
• Of those who are offered heroin, about 20 percent will try it and of those 25 percent will become dependent, according to the study.
• Users were about 18-years-old and in high school when they first snorted heroin, not understanding it was highly addictive.
• Among the higher socio-economic status participants, heroin use spread throughout the high school peer group and many became dependent, the study stated.

Garriepy wants to get these facts out to McHenry County residents. She wants to see more action taken to combat the heroin scourge.

She was able to take a friend, Samantha, 19, of Huntley to the forum. The two took a class together at McHenry County College. What struck Samantha were the stories from addicts about the withdrawal off of heroin. One woman said she would never have tried heroin if she knew what withdrawl would be like, Samantha said.

Heroin is a touchy topic in Huntley and surrounding communities and no one really wants to talk about it, said Samantha, who declined to give her last name.

“I don’t think kids are getting it these days,” she said, adding schools need to expand drug education in high school.

The Roosevelt study found that the respondents had been involved in a D.A.R.E. education program in elementary school but felt it was boring or forgettable. While particpants received some education about drugs and drug use in health class, it was limited to two week sessions or bullet point presentation, the study stated. Health classes focused more on pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, the study found.

Garriepy thinks random testing should be mandatory in school, pointing to a policy used in Plano. If a student fails the test, he or she should get help and not necessarily be penalized, she said.

What she also thinks is something needs to be done to raise more awareness about heroin addiction in the suburbs.

“People don’t want to get involved because it’s not affecting them but when they get involved, it’s too late,” Garriepy said.