Return of cocaine in Cook, DuPage, Lake County and Indiana troubles law enforcement while tainted supply makes it deadlier than ever

CHICAGO (WLS) — Forty years after the “Miami Vice” drug boom, cocaine is making a comeback in the Chicago area. Now the drug of choice, it irritates law enforcement and destroys the loved ones of drug users who may not know what they are taking until it is too late.

Statistics and stories from families and frontline experts reveal a troubling spike in cocaine across the Chicago area. Especially since the pandemic, local demand and cartel production have reportedly reached record highs.

And it's deadlier than ever, because most cocaine is now laced with the strong opioid fentanyl.

Patty Stovall knows the meltdown all too well. It took the life of his 33 year old daughter, Sarah.

“The grief of losing a child is horrific,” she said, “I don't want to say it wasn't a surprise, like it used to be. It certainly was.”

She said despite years of struggling with addiction, her daughter had no desire to die. But 18 months ago he was poisoned by cocaine which he didn't know contained large amounts of fentanyl.

“He just gave and loved from the soul,” said Stovall, “We fought for his life, you know.”

The United Nations on Drugs and Crime recently released the first Global Report on Cocainenoted that global supply has reached record levels and now many regions are showing a steady increase in cocaine use.

“The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime notes that the cocaine trade is also diversifying with new hubs, routes, groups and modalities,” said Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN Secretary-General.

Just last week, nine men were arrested by Chicago FBI agents after a six-year undercover investigation. Authorities said they found dozens of weapons hidden in the car, some automatic, ready for gang warfare, and stash of cocaine containing fentanyl.

Will County Coroner Laurie Summers is disgusted by the needless deaths from fentanyl and now fentanyl-containing cocaine.

“They buy cocaine thinking it's safe, and it's not. And even if cocaine is part of the cause of death, most of the time it's fentanyl. There are other drugs mixed in there,” he said.

Public health data released by Will County on social media shows that in 2022 the county recorded 64 cocaine-related deaths. So far in 2023, there are at least 11.

“It's a mess. Do I have any ideas? Heck yeah. Am I opinionated? Heck yeah. But we need to do better. We need to do better. And we need to understand why things are getting worse. And a large part of that is due to mental health issues fundamentals that we don't address,” Summers said.

At the DuPage County morgue there were more than 150 overdose deaths in 2022, and the bodies examined there showed an increase in non-opioid drugs, specifically cocaine.

In many cases, complex toxicology reports show a lethal mixture of substances, making it difficult to determine which drug was responsible for the death. Dr. Richard Jorgensen, who has been the DuPage County coroner for nearly a decade, is appalled by the high levels of cocaine cases now surfacing in his county.

“It's very common cocaine, which isn't going away but is becoming a very minor drug in Chicagoland, and we now find it in a third of the toxicology reports we look at,” he said.

In Cook County, analysis of I-Team data reveals a steady increase in cocaine as the leading cause of death since 2015. So far in 2023, more than 160 people have died from cocaine-related deaths, and last year nearly 80% of cocaine-related deaths also involved fentanyl .

On the West Side of Chicago, near one of the current overdose hotspots, member West Side Heroin/Opioid Task Force join forces with other outreach groups in the community to offer drug treatment, support, treatment packages with the opioid overdose antidote naloxone, and warnings about the lethal drug mix on the streets.

Luther Syas, director of the outreach task force, explained the group was in the process of changing its name because there was far less heroin on the streets today.

“More fentanyl but we're starting to see… cocaine admixtures. It's a compound so yeah people will tell you I do heroin/cocaine,” he said.

Syas said there was a growing need for more trained health professionals to engage with people struggling with drug addiction, including more on-site mental health services.

In Lake County, Indiana, so far in 2023 there have been 24 cocaine-related deaths, already considered a high number by the coroner's office, which reported a dramatic increase in cocaine/fentanyl-related deaths in recent years.

Stovall's mission is to support Indiana's efforts to bring vending machines that give out free naloxone to the public. The effort was supported by Governor Eric Holcomb and the machine was purchased by Overdose Lifeline, an Indiana nonprofit that used federal grants for the device. Each machine holds up to 300 naloxone kits which are distributed free of charge. There are now 19 machines statewide, including in Stovall's hometown of Griffith.

Stovall also started the non-profit organization Sounds of Sarah in memory of his daughter, and heads We Fight Together Overdose & Drug Poisoning Awareness Walk Run on Saturday, May 13 from 11am to 3.30pm in Highland, Ind.

“I just want to make sure that people know they are not alone. This grief is very heavy. I want to make sure that we are educating the public,” he said.

Every day about 300 people die from drug poisoning; as Stovall said, like a plane crashing every day.