Daily Herald,
Jan 08, 2005
Heroin fight taking Kirk to Afghanistan
By Bob Susnjara
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Increased heroin use by suburban young adults is helping create
giant profits for Osama bin Laden, one of the world's largest dealers
of the drug, federal officials say.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk of Highland Park said he'll lead
a five-man delegation next week to Afghanistan as part of an effort
to reduce heroin flow into this country. Bin Laden's al-Qaida
operatives sell Afghan heroin, he said.
Afghanistan produces about 75 percent of the world's heroin,
according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Bin Laden and other terrorists are part of an Afghan heroin trade
that's projected to spiral from $2.5 billion to $7 billion in
annual profits this year, Kirk said during a news conference in
his Deerfield office Friday.
"At some stage," Kirk said, "the terrorist organizations
might be in the market for a nuclear weapon with that kind of
money."
U.S. officials have committed about $700 million to derail Afghanistan's
heroin production. Kirk and his entourage plan to meet with DEA
and State Department officials in Afghanistan next week.
Kirk said the anti-heroin effort will involve steering Afghan
farmers from growing opium poppies, which are used for heroin,
in favor of wheat and exotic spices. He said there are plans to
boost the number of DEA agents in Afghanistan from three to 15.
Officials said heroin use is a concern in the Chicago area. The
region ranked No. 2 in the country with 352 heroin deaths in 2001,
behind only Philadelphia's 391.
Heroin deaths in the Chicago area increased by 57 percent from
1996 to 2001, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network.
Although he didn't have precise figures, Terry Lemming, chief
drug coordinator for the Illinois State Police, said a Roosevelt
University study shows heroin use quadrupled in the collar counties
in the past 10 years. Cook County heroin use has doubled, he said.
Lemming said most heroin users are young adults from the suburbs
who don't look like stereotypical junkies.
"I (used to) think of an emaciated man with a rubber band
around his arm," he said.
Joanna Bowersmith, 23, was a young heroin addict. She entered
a drug rehabilitation facility and has been sober for about five
years.
Bowersmith, now a counselor at Family and Adolescence In Recovery
in Rolling Meadows, said suburban teenagers are prone to seek
heroin because they have the money and it's easier to buy than
alcohol.
She recalled how her heroin habit cost up to $100 daily, while
her ex-boyfriend in Naperville spent $300 to $500. Bowersmith
said her former boyfriend and teens in Naperville would claim
they were going shopping to get the heroin cash from their parents.
Meanwhile, state police reported Friday that arrests and hospitalizations
related to the club drug ecstasy have declined in the past two
years.
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