High School Athletes and Prescription Drugs

By John Underwood AAI

Recent nationwide data indicates that as many as 51% of the entire American population are now regularly using prescription drugs. Think of your own family members and you may see the full magnitude of this claim. Unfortunately, athletes are now at risk for another area of drug use which has already reached levels of great concern. Dangerous drugs like OXY, muscle relaxants and stimulants are being used at alarming levels. We have seen many high profile scandals in NY State.

 

 

Without any names, think about this scenario which came to us recently… What is wrong with this incident and the way it was handled? Just about everything!

Five junior varsity _____ High School football players have been suspended for possessing unauthorized prescription drugs at school last week.

School officials caught one of the students distributing his prescribed medication to four teammates late last week, said _______  _______, a spokeswoman for ______ Public Schools.

"There was an incident last week with a student on the junior varsity football team at __________, who was distributing his personal prescription medication," _______ said. "It's my understanding it was just (one) incident."

______ police,  which have a school resource officer at the school, were not notified of the incident and a police report was not filed, said Detective _________, a police spokeswoman. Parents were not notified of the incident.

"That's not something to share with parents necessarily because it involves student discipline," ________ said. "It's important for parents to understand that we take this very seriously and we are very concerned about students who might misuse prescription drugs."

Federal law prevented ________ from identifying the students or the extent of their punishment, but none was on campus Monday. She could not say whether the teens were still on the football team.

Possessing, distributing or using drugs, including prescription medication, on campus is a violation of the school's policies.

Those who violate the policy can be suspended up to 10 days or as much as two semesters and face expulsion. The student must also complete a drug intervention program, _______ said.

 

Another serious dilemma for us to face with our young athletes is the increasingly popular use of prescription drugs. Reading the above news release from an anonymous high school again illustrates the misguided efforts of adults in leadership capacities to impact such problems.

It is hard to imagine, that despite the fact that it is a felony in most states to redistribute prescription drugs or to possess a prescription drug without medical authorization, that law enforcement authorities were not notified. The above example is reality today for many young people who risk incredible harm and damage from using prescription drugs most often acquired from teammates. The magnitude of consequences for such a serious offense should be equal to the seriousness of this dangerous behavior. Ten days isn’t even close. As an organization dealing with high school athlete chemical health, we wonder if in fact there was any follow up to facilitate a mandatory Parent Athlete learning curve on the dangers of this use and impression to deter future use. Our guess would be that it did not happen.  "It's my understanding it was just (one) incident" is quite often how school districts handle these problems in today’s world. Defusing the publicity is the administrative goal and it is handled by simply stating that it was an isolated incident. Sadly the danger still looms and the pharma craze continues to grow nationwide. During a recent trip to Montana, we learned of Rocky who went to a party where many of the attendees where “Pharming.”  Usage of prescription medicines as a means to getting high is the fastest growing form of drug use in the USA.  Unfortunately the so called "pharming parties" have become popular among American youth. In these parties, participants bring with them whatever pills they can find in the medicine cabinets of their homes. Kids will place the pills in a big bowl and each person ingests an assortment of the pill mix and waits for the unknown effect to set in. Inadvertently parents and grandparents have become "a great source of drugs" with often serious consequences.  The danger is incredible.  Rocky died from an overdose resulting from the lethal combination of Methadone, Oxycodone and alcohol.

Rocky is just one of many young people who have no fear of consequence.  The mantra…Just do it… We need to take this seriously and educate thoroughly and effectively, all of our youth. Harm reduction has been missing for too long. Our kids are in peril.  Leaders need to step forward and network with law enforcement and prevention and intervention specialists to address this serious issue. Time to  educate…Time to fight.