By the Numbers: Sheriff's Office Provides Stats to Paint Drug Picture

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office has been trying to educate the public about the county’s drug problem through a series of forums and by sharing startling statistics.

People have an attitude that this doesn’t affect me, Lake County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dale Navarro said. That’s wrong, it affects all of us. One addict affects the community one way or another, he said.

“Anyone who died of a heroin overdose is somebody’s kid, somebody’s brother, somebody’s sister,” Navarro said. “This is devastating. We need to do something now to save our kids.”

By the Numbers

The Lake County Coroner’s officereported 81 drug related deaths in 2012. Heroin deaths topped the statistics with 31. There were 21deaths involving more than one drug, the office reported.

Heroin overdose deaths increased 115 percent in Lake County between 2007 and 2011, according to the coroner’s office.

In 2002, 6.8 metric tons of heroin were produced, the amount increased by 668 percent, to 50 metric tons in 2011, according to a study by Roosevelt University. “The sad part is that’s an underestimation,” Navarro said, pointing out the heroin can be cut one or two times.

Over 35,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

2.1 million Americans regularly use drugs.

35.9 million Americans aged 12 and older have tried cocaine once in their lives.