Bertino-Tarrant Appointed to Heroin Task Force

Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant (D-Shorewood) announced Thursday that she's been appointed by Senate President John Cullter to the Young Adults Heroin Task Force.

The committee is tasked with finding a legislative solution to the growing heroin problem in the Chicago suburbs and across the state.

So far in 2013, there have been 29 heroin overdose deaths in Will County, including three in Plainfield, according to the coroner's office. There were 53 heroin-related deaths in 2012.

“As a lifelong educator, I feel it is my duty to help inform, alert and dissuade the young adults in our communities from experimenting with substances that are so dangerous and pose such significant risks,” Bertino-Tarrant said in a press release.  “No level of curiosity or peer pressure is worth dying.”

Related:

• Plainfield Man Charged With Homicide in Heroin Overdose Death
• Dad: Heroin Epidemic 'More Than a Crime'
  
  

The goal of the Young Adults Heroin Use Task Force is to help coordinate the education and prevention efforts between law enforcement and treatment centers, as well as find legislative solutions to the mounting crisis. 

“This task force will help us find better ways to educate families about prevention and help us identify policy-driven solutions to combating this epidemic,” Bertino-Tarrant said.