CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State AG Patrick Morrisey focusing his office’s drug epidemic fight on the use of opioids in high school athletics.
“We want to start educating people at a young age, because based upon some of the statistics that we’ve seen, we know that adolescent male athletes are twice as likely to be prescribed opiate painkillers, and four times more likely to abuse pills than non-athletes,” said Morrisey.
The overdose death rate in the Mountain State is 35.5 per 100 people which Morrisey said is “a number that is obscene to everyone.”
He said that too often, addiction begins with a legitimate prescription for a sports injury.
“While many people think that injuries are the biggest threats that student-athletes will face, the reality shows that what they may receive in terms of a painkiller after an injury could really be the meaningful danger.”
That’s why Morrisey said his office has pushed for the prescription of non-opioid alternatives for injuries.
“Some of these opioids have the same addictive elements as heroin,” he said. “So we have to make sure that people are educated about that. That’s why we’ve been stressing non-opioid alternatives, not only in the context of high school athletics, but also generally because we find too many people are still being prescribed opioids.”
Morrisey said during his tenure as the attorney general, the office had gotten more aggressive in fighting opioid use.
“We have to be so agressive about this issue, because it’s killing so many people in West Virginia, and it’s time it comes to an end.”
Some people do legitimately need opioids for pain, Morrisey said, and didn’t want to block their prescriptions, but wanted to stop “pathways and gateways into abuse and addiction.”
“A lot of people are going through the prescription pain doorway, and then they’re getting to heroin.”