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One in Five College Students Knows Someone With an Opioid Addiction

One in Five College Students Knows Someone With an Opioid Addiction

“According to new research from Penn State University Lehigh Valley”

This is a national crisis and doesn’t get nearly enough coverage.

The Washington Examiner reports:

1 in 5 college students knows someone addicted to opioids

A new study indicates that a growing number of millennials are facing pressure from the secondary effects of the opioid crisis through personal relationships with friends or relatives who have fallen victim to addiction to painkillers.

According to new research from Penn State University Lehigh Valley, approximately one-in-five college students reported knowing someone who was addicted to opioids, and roughly one-third of college students surveyed said that they knew someone who had overdosed on pain medication.

According to the researchers, many people only consider the impact of opioid epidemic on addicts themselves, often forgetting about the secondary effects experienced by family members or friends of a loved one who has become addicted to painkillers.

“Since the beginning of the opioid epidemic, public debate and prevention strategies have focused on the primary victims, misusers themselves, while surprisingly little attention has been paid to the burdens felt and experienced by those who are intimately or socially tied to them,” said lead researcher Jennifer Parker, who is an associate professor of sociology at PSU Lehigh Valley.

[Featured Image: Photo Illustration by Michael Uribes/The Collegian]

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Comments

I wonder if these are the same people getting raped /s

Sorry, but I’m skeptical of any “study” published by anyone with the word “social” in their degree/title. What was the methodology of the study?

One in five college students probably sees someone addicted to opioids when they look in the mirror.

Any study that does not carefully separate users of opioid materials into one of two distinct categories is likely to be a failure.

One aggregation of people is made up of patients of legitimate medical practitioners who prescribe medications for the treatment of pain and associated disorders.

The other cohort is made up of people who use opioid materials outside the boundaries of legitimate medical treatment.

The life experiences of each cohort different. One group, legal users, is attempting to obtain a return to normalcy when presented with conditions that are injurious or disabling. The other group attempts to enjoy pleasing side effects of these chemicals. Those being treated for legitimate have (or had) a legal supply of properly compounded medications. The other group relies on drugs of unknown manufacture sold to them through illegal channels or by theft or misappropriation of legal drugs.

Lumping the two groups together in a single regulatory environment is a prescription for disaster for patients seeking legitimate relief from pain. The families of patients treated for pain have an outlook 180 degrees out of phase with the families of individuals addicted to illegal drugs.