A growing category of young, white, suburban heroin users in the Chicago area prefer higher purity white heroin over Mexican brown powdered or black tar heroin. Mexican heroin producers may be changing their product to meet this demand. Increased supply, lower cost, and higher purity levels of heroin will lead to increased heroin abuse in suburban and rural areas. The high rate of marijuana abuse by Illinois students foreshadows a new generation of adult drug abusers. Higher rates of drug abuse by school age students are tied more to the perception of lesser risk than increased availability.
Teenagers increasingly perceive marijuana and club drugs as harmless.
The increased abuse of marijuana and club drugs by students may lead to increased abuse of other drugs as students grow older. One national study determined that children who use marijuana are 85 times more likely to use cocaine than nonusers. Methamphetamine availability and production are growing rapidly in Illinois. Methamphetamine is now the most significant drug threat in the rural areas of the state and the second biggest threat, after crack, in some urban areas of central Illinois. Although methamphetamine availability in Chicago is low, abuse in Chicago may increase slightly as the popularity of the drug increases in the northern and northeastern parts of the state.