As our state continues to battle with its growing heroin and prescription pill abuse problems, Illinois lawmakers are scrambling for solutions.

According to reporters from the Chicago Tribune, heroin fatalities have skyrocketed in the last four years. Last year alone, more than 633 people died from heroin overdose in Illinois. Heroin abuse has been closely linked to prescription pill addiction, with many prescription pill addicts ultimately turning to heroin when they cannot afford the high cost of painkillers.[...]

Two separate marijuana-related incidents highlight Chicago police officers’ haste to make drug crime arrests—often at the expense of civil rights.

The two reported incidents, four years apart, demonstrate how officers may hold suspects of drug offenses for hours in an attempt to force them to confess or incriminate others.

In both the 2010 and 2014 reports, Chicago officers from Homan Square arrested two suspects for possession of marijuana, and then proceeded to detain them for hours without record of [...]