| |||||||||||||||
|
Reported by: Charles Vance/WCIA 3 Tuesday, Sep 23, 2008 @04:50pm CDT Meth use is down across Central Illinois but it's not time to celebrate.
Drug treatment centers say the focus on meth has paid off but drug addiction is still a major problem. Counselors say the war on meth worked to cut down on meth use but addicts are simply turning to other drugs like cocaine, crack, and heroin that are just as deadly. This trend is evident in the Prairie Center's Drug Treatment programs across Central Illinois. In the last few years meth users made up more than 50-percent of the Prairie Center's drug treatment admissions. But in recent months that number has fallen to only 10-percent. Counselors say that doesn't mean they see less patients. "There is a resurgence in drugs that were a problem before Methamphetamine," says Clinical Director Susan Perkins. "The people that were Methamphetamine users are now the users of other drugs." Cocaine, crack and heroin are all taking the place of meth. Just this weekend in Champaign two people overdosed on heroin and died. It's a drug law enforcement says is on the rise. "We can't make a correlation whether of not we've had increased heroin usage because of less meth," says Lieutenant Ed Ogle with the Champaign Sheriff's Department, "but we have seen more heroin use on the rise in the last four to five years." Perkins says it's a sign we need to do more to treat the problem of addiction and not just fight a war on any specific drug. "People have more than one drug of choice now. They are coming to us for drugs and multiple drug use so the problem has continued." |