Todd Hubler
President Donald Trump may have declared the opioid crisis a national emergency last week, but plenty of people — including state officials both in Madison and at the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association in Stevens Point — were way ahead of him.
Four out of 10 teenagers believe prescription drugs are less dangerous and less addictive than street drugs, according to the state’s Department of Justice, which created the informational Dose of Reality website to address increasing concerns about this issue. In Wisconsin, the rate of prescription painkiller overdoses among people ages 12 to 25 has increased 260% in recent years. Last month, Gov. Scott Walker signed 11 bills aimed at fighting the state’s opioid epidemic.
While there appears to be no evidence suggesting that painkiller abuse occurs more frequently among young people who play sports than in the general population, high school student-athletes can be prime candidates to misuse opioids — defined as narcotic pain medications prescribed to combat moderate to severe pain. These include Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet, Fentanyl, Opana and codeine.
When the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association became the first in the country to issue comprehensive guidelines regarding opioids in 2016, it cited National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence data indicating that 12% of male student-athletes and 8% of female student-athletes were prescribed highly addictive opioid-class narcotics within the previous 12 months. (A particularly alarmist informational piece distributed by West Virginia officials claims that 75% of high school heroin users began with prescription opioids.)
“There needs to be more awareness,” Bob Colgate, director of sports and sports medicine at the Indianapolis-based National Federation of State High School Associations, told me. “This is not only happening at the high school level but also in college and professional sports.”
A special page on the Dose of Reality site focuses on warning signs coaches (and parents) can look for in athletes who might be abusing opioids. Withdrawal, depression, hostility, fatigue and lateness are among them. Performance also decreases. Resources and potential solutions are also listed.
One of those solutions is encouraging parents and athletes to consider non-narcotic painkiller alternatives such as physical therapy, chiropractic care, massage therapy or over-the-counter medication.
WIAA officials have worked with the Department of Justice over the past 16 months to boost awareness of the opioid crisis and promote the Dose of Reality campaign, and the association has distributed a DoJ-produced brochure to its 511 member high schools, according to Todd Clark, the association’s director of communications.
