HP_061319

16 | June 13, 2019 | The highland park landmark news
hplandmark.com
Lake County Coroner shares
strong message at library talk
Alan P. Henry
Freelance Reporter
Lake County Coroner
Dr. Howard Cooper
speaks frequently with
groups of students about
drugs, and his primary
message is a straightforward
one: “Make good
choices.”
“We get out and talk
to as many kids as we
can,” he told an audience
Thursday, May 30,
at the Lake Bluff Library,
where he had been invited
to speak about his
office.
“I say to them, ‘if at
any point you say to
yourselves, ‘Is this a
2019
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good idea?’ it isn’t. If
you ever ask yourself that
question, it is not a good
idea. Don’t do it.”
Cooper sees the end
result of the scourge of
drugs across Lake County
on a daily basis.
“It is everywhere,” he
said, and getting worse
across all ages.
Drug overdose deaths
have risen from 68 in
2016 to 97 in 2018, including
70 from opioids.
With 2019 less than half
over, his office already
has 50 pending cases, he
said.
Fentanyls “are the
big thing that is coming
through now,” Cooper
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• Legal
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said.
Cooper also spoke
more broadly to the audience
about the nation’s
drug culture and created
for them a chilling scenario.
“We are a pill popping
society. You go to your
doctor, you can tell him
whatever you want and
you’re going to leave
with a prescription probably
95 percent of the
time,” he said. “When I
talk to families and there
was a heroin overdose, I
ask ‘How did this start?’”
Cooper went on to explain
many times it happens
after a teenager is
injured and is prescribed
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pain killers.
After an injury or surgery,
the teenager typically
takes medicine as
prescribed to help with
the pain. When the prescription
runs out and
the teenager goes back to
the doctor, Cooper said
sometimes kids realize
how much the medicine
helps and ask for another
prescription.
“He might not necessarily
know he is addicted,
but he knows he needs
the pills, then he goes
back a third time and says
‘I need another scrip,’
and at this point the doctor
says ‘You are addicted,
I am not giving you
these drugs,’” Cooper
said. “We see this time
and time again, and now
the kid has to try to figure
out where he is going to
get the drugs from.”
Cooper went on the
explain kids will turn to
parents’ medicine cabinets
and if parents don’t
have the pills they are
looking for, they will try
and find some at school.
Cooper added that
eventually someone at
school tells them about
heroin.
“The first time you take
heroin, it changes something
in your brain, so
most people will spend
the rest of their lives trying
to get off that drug.
“It is not to say people
can’t get off it. People do,
but it is really hard and
we see that over and over.
And now with fentanyl
it is even worse because
fentanyl can be 100 times
more potent than heroin.”
nfyn
From Page 12
that occurred on May
21 in the 1500 block of
Shermer Road, according
to a June 6 press release
from the department.
Following reported allegations
of a juvenile
subject discharging a firearm
two to four times during
a dispute and ensuing
fight, Northbrook police
have charged the subject
with:
Aggravated discharge
of a firearm — Class 1
felony
Reckless discharge of a
firearm — Class 4 felony
Aggravated assault —
Class A misdemeanor
Reckless conduct —
Class A misdemeanor
According to the department,
the juvenile has
been petitioned to the juvenile
court, processed,
and released to parents.
As first reported by The
Tower, Northbrook police
responded to a call about
a disturbance involving a
reported fight at approximately
7:11 p.m. Tuesday,
May 21, in the 1500 block
of Shermer Road, according
to Thomas Moore,
a spokesperson for the
Northbrook Police Department.
Reporting by Martin Carlino,
Contributing Editor.
Full story at Northbrook-
Tower.com.
THE LAKE FOREST LEADER
City approved Parks and
Recreations 10-year
Strategic Master Plan
After a year in the making,
the Lake Forest Parks
and Recreation 10-year
Strategic Master Plan received
approval from the
City Council at its Monday,
June 3 meeting.
The plan will serve as a
roadmap for the city and
key stakeholders on how
to align and drive continual
growth and improvement
of open space, facilities,
recreation systems
and services from 2019 to
2029.
Mayor George Pandaleon
lauded the plan as
impressive.
“It was very, very wellorganized
and presented,”
Pandaleon said. “And
wonderful public-private
partnership that brings
this about.”
The council approved
the plan by a 7-0 vote, with
an abstention from Ward 3
Alderman Ara Goshgarian
— due to his involvement
with The Friends of Lake
Forest Parks and Recreation
Foundation. The
foundation partnered with
the city’s parks and recreation
department to create
the plan and draft its 27
goals for facility, park and
open space, and planning
and policy improvements.
Upon the council’s approval,
Goshgarian commended
those involved in
extensive data-gathering
and community outreach
that included public workshops,
focus groups and
surveys with more than
740 residents.
“Throughout that process,
we realized and acknowledged
that this was
going to be a public-private
partnership moving
forward — helping when
we can from the city,”
Goshgarian said. “But this
had to come from the residents
in order to be supported
by the residents,
and they will be looking
for that help.”
Moving forward, the
plan will act as a living
document that will be updated
with community input,
according to Joe Mobile,
the superintendent
for the city’s parks and
recreation department.
Reporting by Stephanie Kim,
Freelance Reporter. Full
story at LakeForestLeader.
com.