Photo courtesy of NY Times
New data has shown an alarming rise in drug and alcohol overdose among college-age students.
Since 1998, the number of hospitalizations following overdose in 18-24 year olds have risen dramatically.
“…Overdoses involving alcohol in combination with other drugs increased 76%; overdoses involving drugs other than alcohol rose 55%; and those involving alcohol alone went up 25%…overdoses involving prescription painkillers… leapt 122% over the same period.”
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one in four deaths is due to alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drug use. Education programs are working hard to help students know the facts about drug abuse and avoid addiction entirely (NIDA’s National Drug Facts Week kicks off October 31st).
Barring that, however, programs are increasingly making use of Naloxone, a “miracle drug” that reverses the effects of opiate abuse.
Programs like the Chicago Recovery Alliance are trying to make the drug more widely available in the hopes of saving lives. Critics however, worry that access to the drug will only encourage addictive behavior without consequences.
Do you think this is a good answer to a growing problem?
