Chris Weaver had a sparkle behind his brown eyes that his older brother Jordan said was symbolic of his personality. “He lit up the room every time he was in it. He had the biggest, most infectious smile,” Jordan said.
He loved being fashionable. He was on the bowling team in high school. He had never been arrested. Friends said his goofy attitude could brighten any day.That sparkle dimmed as Chris struggled with challenges in his life, but Jordan said it had recently returned. He believed his 21-year-old brother, who was majoring in international business at the University of Missouri at Columbia, was doing well.
That sparkle went out forever, however, on May 21 when Chris, home for the summer, became another on the long list of young people in the suburbs to die of a heroin overdose.
Jordan Weaver, 24, who now lives in Mundelein, said his family moved to Vernon Hills from Chicago in 1994 so he and his brothers could attend good schools away from the gangs and violence of the city.
“It's sadly ironic that this happened instead,” he said. “You can find trouble wherever you go.”
As more and more people find that trouble and the number of suburban heroin deaths continues to rise, groups of young adults are organizing to try to lead a change.
Their hope is to do what parents, teachers and police haven't accomplished — reach peers with a message about heroin and reverse the trend of drug use and death that experts say hasn't yet peaked.
“We're feeling the effects of this and we see it,” said Shannon Brody, 21, of Lake Zurich, who along with her mother and several other young women started a group called “Take A Stand” this year to raise awareness and money through events in the area.
“Death was becoming a regular thing, and that's when you realize something needs to be done,” added Lindsey Dulian, 24 of Lake Zurich, a member of the group.
Vernon Hills High School alumna Lauren Hansen, 24, now of Kenosha, gathered her younger brother, Mike, and his friend Greg Harmon — both recovering heroin addicts — to create a Facebook group called “Let's Save Our Friends Lives” after Chris Weaver's death last month.
“It's here and it's going to keep killing our friends,” Lauren said of the drug.
The group has made videos documenting the heroin struggles faced by Hansen and Harmon in an honest, straightforward way — from talking about how they started doing the drug and what they lost through the addiction, to withdrawal and the path to getting clean.
Their videos have more than 6,000 views so far.
“It's a tragedy, and the best way we can honor (Chris') life is to raise awareness and try to keep it from happening again,” Harmon said.
In the fall, “Let's Save Our Friends Lives” will look to visit area high schools and talk to students about their experiences.
Weaver said spreading the message isn't just a good idea, but is a responsibility young people have to one another.
“Your friends are going to do things you don't like and you don't know how to deal with, but our job is to help them anyway,” he said. “Everybody strays and it's in those darkest times that you need a forever friend.”
The group isn't the only one trying the approach.
In Naperville, two teenagers spoke with more than 20 former and current drug addicts about their experiences for a 90-minute documentary called “Neuqua on Drugs” about the growing problem they saw at Neuqua Valley High School.
“We just filmed kids talking about the drug problem to show what the situation is. Now it's up to the community to do something about it,” said Kelly McCutcheon, 18, of Naperville.
The documentary doesn't use students' names and blurs some of their faces, which allowed the teens to speak freely.
More than 200 people attended the first screening of the documentary last month, and DVDs will go on sale next month.
“When you watch those other anti-drug movies in health class, it's always moms or teachers or doctors telling you not to do drugs. It's not as personal,” McCutcheon said. “Since it's coming from high school kids, other people will find it easier to relate to.”
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120624/news/706249920/
. Cops basically seem to enforce segregation, stopping people if they're not in the same race's hood. I mean where I'm at it's pretty integrated, though white flight is in progress. But a lot of these supposedly progressive cities seem racist as fuck. I mean when I saw the protest when Obama came to Chicago, with cops hitting protester, I thought it was some protest in like the middle east or Russia.Nope, just the good ol' USA.
