Located approximately 45 minutes outside of Chicago, Northbrook struggles with many of the same drug issues seen in the city. Heroin is plentiful and far cheaper to buy than prescription pills such as Oxycodone. In 2015, Northbrook police chief Chuck Wernick indicated heroin is one of the biggest problems Northbrook has.  Like larger cities in the area, such as Chicago, Northbrook is located just off a major highway, making drug trafficking, drug sales, and drug-related deaths common problems. Northbrook is part of suburban Cook County. Although the county does not report each city individually, they do separate data into two distinct categories. Suburban Cook County includes smaller towns and cities such as Northbrook. Drug-related statistics for Chicago are reported separately from suburban Cook County statistics. In 2018, the county coroner’s office reported over 1,100 deaths related to opioid overdose. Of those, 328 occurred in suburban areas like Northbrook. Fentanyl also contributes significantly to opioid-related emergencies and death in Cook County. In 2018, the rate of death attributed to fentanyl far outpaced other opioid drugs. In suburban areas of Cook County, the rate of death linked to fentanyl-related overdose increased by 7.9% in 2017 to 9.1 per 100,000 people in 2018.  The rate of opioid-related death in suburban Cook County was highest among white males ages 25-34. The Cook County Department of Health report from 2018 indicated men were 2.5 times more likely to die from opioid overdose than women. This is in stark contrast to Chicago, where the highest rate of death was black males ages 45-64. The same Cook County Department of Health report noted that black males in Chicago were up to three times more likely to die than white or Hispanic individuals. Men of any race or ethnicity were more than 3.5 times more likely to die from opioid overdose than females in Chicago.  Also, the percentage of overdose deaths resulting from prescription painkiller abuse was higher in suburban cook county than within the Chicago city limits. In 2018, the rate of deaths involving prescription drugs was nearly 22% in suburban areas compared to 5% in Chicago. In the same year, there was an 8.8% increase in prescription drug-related deaths in cities like Northbrook, while Chicago saw a 54.4% decrease.  Fentanyl was the drug most often responsible for overdose deaths in suburban Cook County. In 2018, fentanyl was linked to 67.3% of overdose deaths, a rise of almost 25% over 2017 statistics.