DIXON (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Kane County Sheriff’s Department is the latest in the area to offer drug addicts a way to get help with their problem. The pilot program is called “A Way Out.” and Sheriff Ron Hain said the object is to help get treatment for people with drug problems. To do that, addicts need to contact the Kane County Sheriff’s Department and ask for help. The Sheriff’s Office will then help find a treatment center for that person. “This was birthed in Dixon, Illinois by the Dixon Police Department, and the concept was to provide non-punitive support to mostly the opioid addicted population," said Sheriff Ron Hain.
There are different ways to start to get help, the sheriff said. A drug user can show up at a police station, call for a sheriff’s deputy or text.“People are probably more likely to communicate an issue that they’re having through text in the year 2019 than they are to just walk into a police station," Hain said.To text a need for help, Sheriff Hain said a person should click on the Tip411 link on the sheriff’s homepage and then click on “A Way Out” to text a need for help.Addicts who ask for help will be taken by a sheriff’s deputy to a treatment center that has an open bed. Hain said a similar program in Lake County sees about two drug addicts a month seeking to break away from their habit.“This is just one more angle that we’re saying to our community, ‘Hey, there’s no reason to be addicted and in pain and feel like you don’t have any support,'" he Hain said. "There’s no reason to be part of the criminal culture in Kane County because we have options for you.”