U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA) recently introduced bipartisan legislation that would explore how injured student athletes are educated about prescription drug abuse, as well as steps to improve such education.
The John Thomas Decker Act, H.R. 4969, would direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study the availability of information and resources about the dangers of opioid use, alternative treatments and addiction treatment options to student athletes and their families.
“Opioids are not aspirin,” Meehan, the co-chairman of the Congressional Youth Sports Caucus, said. “Too many kids and student athletes in particular succumb to a heroin habit that started with a prescription from a doctor. We must educate parents and students about this danger.”
Eighty percent of heroin users turned to the drug after abusing opioid painkillers, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Sixty percent of college-aged youth, however, said that opioid painkillers were less risky than heroin, and 22.5 percent of college athletes have used opioid painkillers, approximately five percent more than non-athletes, according to a study by the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.
The John Thomas Decker Act, which is named after a Cornell lacrosse player who died earlier this year from a drug overdose, would direct the CDC to make recommendations about opioid education for students, coaches and parents.
“We need to know the dangers, first to stop a pain med for a torn ACL from becoming a dependency, and then to be able to intervene effectively before a painkiller is swapped out for heroin,” Meehan said. “It’s literally killing our kids and student-athletes.”
U.S. Reps. Tom Rooney (R-FL), Ron Kind (D-WI) and Marc Veasey (D-TX) are cosponsors of the bipartisan John Thomas Decker Act.