poledriver
Bluelighter
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Heroin addiction endemic in promising sports stars
PAINKILLERS are pushing injured and vulnerable young athletes to overdose on heroin at an alarming rate.
A report in the United States shows an increasing number of high school athletes are using heroin after a deteriorating prescription painkiller addiction.
A seven-month investigation by Sports Illustrated claims the use of heroin is so deeply rooted in young athlete’s recoveries from injuries, drug cartels have identified how vulnerable they are to developing a heroin addiction.
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the United States has been shocked to see the rise in heroin use among young athletes and have identified young athletes as a particularly “at risk” demographic.
Four in five heroin users in the US have a history of abusing opioid painkillers, including OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin, according to the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
DEA chief of operations Jack Riley said high school athletes were becoming “unwitting customers of the cartels”.
“In the athletic arena, if anything can be likened to a weapon of mass destruction, it’s heroin,” Riley told Sports Illustrated.
“It is that pervasive now.
“The cartels have developed a strategy, with the help of street gangs, to put heroin in every walk of life. They recognise how vulnerable young athletes are.”
A University of Michigan research project in 2013 found that approximately 11 per cent of high school athletes will have used a narcotic painkiller, including OxyContin or Vicodin, for non-medical purposes by the time they are in their final year of school.
The number of heroin-related overdoses in the United States tripled in the three years between 2010 and 2013 to 2.7 deaths per 100,000 people, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics.
The magazine reports numerous cases of high school athletes from baseball, basketball, UFC, American football and soccer, engaging in “pill parties” with prescription painkillers leading to heroin use as a cheaper alternative to experience a similar high.
The report highlights the lack of information available to young athletes and parents when first issued with a painkiller prescription to treat sports injuries.
http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports...ing-sports-stars/story-fno61i58-1227410433931
PAINKILLERS are pushing injured and vulnerable young athletes to overdose on heroin at an alarming rate.
A report in the United States shows an increasing number of high school athletes are using heroin after a deteriorating prescription painkiller addiction.
A seven-month investigation by Sports Illustrated claims the use of heroin is so deeply rooted in young athlete’s recoveries from injuries, drug cartels have identified how vulnerable they are to developing a heroin addiction.
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the United States has been shocked to see the rise in heroin use among young athletes and have identified young athletes as a particularly “at risk” demographic.
Four in five heroin users in the US have a history of abusing opioid painkillers, including OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin, according to the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
DEA chief of operations Jack Riley said high school athletes were becoming “unwitting customers of the cartels”.
“In the athletic arena, if anything can be likened to a weapon of mass destruction, it’s heroin,” Riley told Sports Illustrated.
“It is that pervasive now.
“The cartels have developed a strategy, with the help of street gangs, to put heroin in every walk of life. They recognise how vulnerable young athletes are.”
A University of Michigan research project in 2013 found that approximately 11 per cent of high school athletes will have used a narcotic painkiller, including OxyContin or Vicodin, for non-medical purposes by the time they are in their final year of school.
The number of heroin-related overdoses in the United States tripled in the three years between 2010 and 2013 to 2.7 deaths per 100,000 people, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics.
The magazine reports numerous cases of high school athletes from baseball, basketball, UFC, American football and soccer, engaging in “pill parties” with prescription painkillers leading to heroin use as a cheaper alternative to experience a similar high.
The report highlights the lack of information available to young athletes and parents when first issued with a painkiller prescription to treat sports injuries.
http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports...ing-sports-stars/story-fno61i58-1227410433931
