Majority of Arrestees on Drugs

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 16, 2011 2:20PM

From the "This Doesn't Surprise Us at All" Department: A White House study released yesterday showed that 83 percent of men arrested in Cook County last year tested positive for at least one illicit drug.

The numbers in the study echo what Sheriff Tom Dart and his correctional officers have to deal with every day.

“It’s assumed that most people going through here either have drugs in their system or are in withdrawal when they are booked in,” said Tom Dart, whose jail staff have to deal with thousands of addicts each year.

“We don’t take note when someone goes through withdrawal because it happens so often.”

More than half of the men admitted into Cook County Jail test positive for marijuana. 25 percent tested positive for cocaine, while 1 out of every 10 inmates tested positive for heroin. Dart told the Sun-Times that it's hard to narrow down a single reason for why the numbers are so high, but suspects Chicago's position as a major drug trafficking hub as one reason.