CNN - Local News - Buffalo Grove teenager might be heroin overdose
Jackson Reed
Published Apr 11, 2026
| By Erin Holmes |
| |
| August 24, 2000 Web posted at: 12:24 PM EDT (1624 GMT) |
BUFFALO GROVE, Illinois (Daily Herald) -- A drug that once was thought to haunt only the depths of big cities may have bared its teeth in the Northwest suburbs, claiming the life of a 17-year-old student from Buffalo Grove.
Ryan Fried, who would have started his senior year at Buffalo Grove High School on Tuesday, died in an Arlington Heights house Saturday afternoon - a victim of what Arlington Heights police say might be a heroin overdose.
According to police, Fried went to the Arlington Heights home, 301 E. Hintz Road, late Friday night. When fire department officials were called to the house about 1 p.m. on Saturday, Fried was dead. Foil packages police believe had contained heroin were found in the house and have been taken to a crime lab for testing.
An official cause of death can be issued only by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, where doctors are awaiting the results of a toxicology report.
That a taboo drug like heroin may be stalking the suburbs does not shock experts in the field.
"The big story is that, definitely, heroin is not just for inner cities anymore. It can be anyone's problem," said Carol Falkowski, director of research communications at Hazelden Foundation, a national center for addiction, treatment, education and research.
Heroin, a highly addictive drug normally found in the form of white- to dark brown powder or a tar-like substance, has become increasingly popular among teens in the past decade, giving the drug a different, younger face.
While marijuana and alcohol remain the two most widely used drugs among teenagers, heroin now is "registering on the radar screen," Falkowski said, and a lot of the stigma surrounding the drug has been washed away.
"Heroin has been normalized," she said. "It has been normalized in the past decade, and now is just another drug that's available to people."
The price of heroin has dropped so much that teens can purchase the drug, in a purer form than ever before, for $5 to $10 - the price of a movie ticket. The price, coupled with a high availability, makes it especially luring to teenagers.
"I think (heroin use) is at epidemic proportions in the suburbs, especially among teenagers," said Judi VanDeveer, a certified alcohol and drug abuse counselor with the Aurora-based Family Guidance Center.
"Unfortunately, a young kid can get hooked on it for as little as $5 to $10. It's that available and that affordable."
The days when the drug always was injected into the veins with a needle are past. Now, teens snort or smoke the drug. Snorting the drug also may make users need heroin more often, experts say, because it does not hit the body with a euphoric high as quickly as when injected.
"I think it's really sad because a kid just thinks that if they're not injecting, they don't have as big a problem," said Karen Fretzin, an OMNI Youth Services substance abuse treatment specialist. "My guess is they're taking more because they want an immediate high. So they're snorting more and then they're dying."
Heroin use often follows use of other drugs, including marijuana, and is rarely tried on a whim by someone not already comfortable with drugs, experts say. The key to stopping its spread, they say, is education - before teens even hit high school. Because while the drug may still be somewhat shrouded in silence in the suburbs of Chicago, it's here.
"Heroin is huge right now. It's a big-time drug right now," Fretzin said.
Snorting heroin can trigger some warning signs, including bloody noses or sniffling, disturbed sleep, a change in eating patterns, a loss of weight or mood changes.
A Naperville North High School student died last year from a heroin overdose. In the late 1990s, heroin broke into the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas, killing a string of teenagers.
The final decision on Fried's cause of death will likely come in six to seven weeks. Buffalo Grove High School on Tuesday interrupted first-day-of-school activities with an announcement that Fried had died. The school, which set up a special counseling area for grieving students, did not divulge a cause of death.
RELATED STORIES:
For more Local news, myCNN.com will bring you news from the areas and subjects you select.
More Illinois Resources:
KHQA Illinois
WAND Illinois
WGN Illinois
CNN/SI City pages:
Champaign, IL
Chicago, IL
Evanston, IL
