47.58% of felonies charged in Coles County from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 are charges involving drugs or alcohol.

In 2022, Coles County has charged 557 total felony cases in which 265 of those cases involved alcohol, cannabis, meth, cocaine, ecstasy, a controlled or counterfeit substance or controlled substance analog and other narcotics.

Of the 265 felony cases, 110 involved meth with either a charge of possession and/or delivery. This calculates as 41.51% of the 265 cases involving drugs and alcohol.

Cannabis made up for eight of the cases, which included charges involving manufacturing, delivering and trafficking cannabis.

A controlled or counterfeit substance or controlled substance analog and other narcotics, meaning any substances other than a controlled substance, which is not approved by the FDA or is not dispensed or possessed in accordance with state or federal law, accounts for 45 of the felony cases.

This equals 16.98% of the total drug and alcohol related felony cases.

There were 28 DUI charges, or 10.57%, of the drug and alcohol felony cases.

There was one charge involving cocaine, one with ecstacy and two with other narcotics.

Many of the different categories of charges involved the same individual with multiple felony charges per case.

Out of the 265 felony cases, 75 of those charged were female and the remaining 190 were male.

Along with gender, with ages those in their 30s had the most felony cases, 93, with a total age range from 18 to 69-year-olds.

Those from 18 to 29-year-olds made up 59 of the cases, or 22.26%.

Those 30 to 39-year-olds had the largest number of cases at 93, or 35.09%.

The 40 to 49-year-olds account for the second largest group with 61 cases, or 23.02%.

The 50 to 59-year-olds had 29 felony cases, or 10.09%.

The 60 to 69-year-olds made up the smallest and last age group with 16 cases, or 6.04%.

In two of the cases the age of the person charged is unknown.

The addresses for those charged with the 265 felonies include 186 residing in Coles County, 75 residing in other counties within Illinois, two from Arkansas and two from Indiana.

For the 186 residing in Coles County, 115 were from Mattoon, 65 were from Charleston, three were from Ashmore, two were from Lerna and one was from Oakland. There were none from Humboldt or Trilla, or other small villages within Coles County.

The trends for the months of the year which were common for drug and alcohol felonies to be committed showed the highest rates in March with 42 cases, along with April and May, which had 35 and 39 respectively.

While all the felonies listed were charged within 2022, some of the alleged crimes were committed in 2021 or 2020.

In total, 17 cases had the arrest within 2022 between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, but occurred before.

There were two from February 2020, one from each of the following months in 2021: March, April, July, August, September, October and November, and five from December 2021.

Minus those 17, there were 248 cases allegedly committed in 2022 within Jan. 1 and Sept. 30.

There were 27 felony cases involving drugs or alcohol in January, making up 10.89% of the cases.

There were 19 cases, 7.66%, in February.

March had the most cases at 42, equaling 16.94% of the total cases in 2022.

April had the third largest at 34 cases, 13.71%, with May having the second most with 39 cases, or 15.73%.

June had 23 cases, which equals to 9.27% of the 248 felony cases.

July had 24 cases, and August had 15. This made up 9.68% and 6.05% respectively.

Finally, September had the last 25 cases, 10.08%, of the 248 felonies involving drugs or alcohol in 2022.

Madelyn Kidd can be reached at 581-2812 or at dennewsdesk@gmail.com.