The opioid crisis isn’t letting up anytime soon, especially here in Cook County.
Nearly 75% of drug overdose deaths in the country in 2020 — during the height of the pandemic — involved an opioid, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Those fatalities skyrocketed in Cook County around the same time as well, and the news is getting more grim, according to the latest data released by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Last year, 2,000 people died of opioid overdoses in Cook County, breaking the previous record of 1,935 deaths in 2021, the Sun-Times’ David Struett and Emmanuel Camarillo reported earlier this week.
Deadly overdoses have been outpacing murders for nearly a decade in Chicago, where more than 70% of the opioid deaths took place.
Curbing the deaths is a challenge that will take efforts from drug counselors to lawmakers and others, all of whom have been trying to pin down the most effective solutions, including mobile narcotics treatment centers. There’s also a proposed bill that would allow state-licensed drug injection sites — which advocates prefer to call overdose prevention sites — to open across Illinois.
A few years back, this editorial board praised several suburbs and rural communities outside Cook County for participating in “Safe Passage” programs, which allow residents who are struggling with substance abuse to walk into police stations, turn in their drugs and get placed in rehab programs. No arrests. No questions asked.
Public money, we believe, is better spent on treatment than jail.
Chicago police also expanded eligibility for its drug diversion program last year, which now includes those caught with up to two grams of fentanyl and other substances to undergo treatment instead of being charged with drug possession.
The latter initiative centers on people who have already been stopped with the illegal drugs in their possession, not those who have voluntarily walked in a police district.
There’s no doubt Chicago police officers have their hands full. But getting people into treatment to stop the cycle of petty crime, arrest, and incarceration would leave officers with more time to fight serious crime.
We urge the Chicago police top brass to keep exploring alternatives like the diversion program. Using police resources, where feasible, to guide drug arrestees on a path toward sobriety makes sense, especially since the overdose deaths are concentrated in Chicago.
And other suburban police departments that aren’t part of the “Safe Passage” program should consider adopting it.
No, solving the opioid problem does not, and should not, fall solely on the police. But alternatives to arrest and jail ultimately frees up police resources — and can help save lives.
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