AG Announces Effort to Tackle Opioid Use by Athletes

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey says his office is teaming with several groups to tackle the problem of opioid use in high school athletics.

Morrisey’s office says the initiative includes educational fliers, public service announcements and speaking events statewide. It says the effort will involve partnerships with groups that include the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission, the West Virginia Board of Medicine and the West Virginia Physical Therapy Association.

The AG’s office points to a University of Michigan study that found 21 percent of male athletes and 14 percent of female athletes will suffer a sports-related injury in a given year.

The study concluded that adolescent male athletes are twice as likely to be prescribed opioid painkillers and four times more likely to abuse the pills than non-athletes.