Antioch police issue warning after 3 teens overdose

ANTIOCH, Ill. - Antioch police issued a warning Wednesday after three teenagers overdosed in the north suburb.

Police said the near-death experiences are a reminder that the national fentanyl crisis is happening right in our backyards.

In 2022 so far, police have responded to 18 suspected opioid overdoses.

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A video from Antioch police showed their response to an overdose from earlier this year. The victim had no pulse when they arrived and they used two doses of Narcan and chest compressions to get him breathing again.

Antioch police published the video as a warning for parents and teens about an uptick in what appears to be fentanyl overdoses.

Just this past weekend, police responded to three high school students who had overdosed. They all survived, but the chief said now is the time to talk to kids about taking pills, like Percocet, that were bought illegally and may contain a deadly dose of fentanyl.

"I think like with many problems, people tend to think that these problems only exist in the urban areas in the big cities," said Geoffrey Guttschow, Antioch police chief. "And while they acknowledge, okay yes we have addiction that happens in our communities, I don't know that they necessarily understand what the prevalence of them is and that there's really been an explosion on the instances of these and how often law enforcement and first responders are encountering these problems."

Every officer in Antioch has Narcan with them in their squad car, as do most first responders.

The McHenry County Health Department, one county over, said they’ve seen a 250% increase in suspected overdose deaths in the past 28 days.