On average there are 7.5 million athletes playing high school sports in a given year. Of those athletes, one-fourth of them will sustain an injury. This is where statistics become blurred, and the stories of high-level athletes that lose themselves in drug addiction begin.
While study after study has shown that participation in sports decreases young adults’ desire to use illegal drugs, studies also show that 11 percent of high school and college athletes report using prescription drugs for non-medical purposes.
Regardless of the sport, the stories are the same. It starts out innocently. The starting pitcher blows out a shoulder, the quarterback tears his ACL, the wrestler gets cauliflower ear or the soccer player breaks their leg.