Hardest Since MC Ren
Kizz My Black Azz
The Class of 2000 'Could Have Been Anything'
The high school yearbook is a staple of teenage life. But for some, it reflects the devastating toll of the opioid crisis.
The Minford High School Class of 2000, in rural Minford, Ohio, began its freshman year as a typical class. It had its jocks and its cheerleaders, its slackers and its overachievers.
But by the time the group entered its final year, its members said, painkillers were nearly ubiquitous, found in classrooms, school bathrooms and at weekend parties.
Over the next decade, Scioto County, which includes Minford, would become ground zero in the state's fight against opioids. It would lead Ohio with its rates of fatal drug overdoses, drug-related incarcerations and babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome.
To understand both the scope and the devastating consequences of what is now a public health crisis, we talked to dozens of members of the Class of 2000. Many opened up to us about struggles with addiction, whether their own or their relatives'. They told us about the years lost to getting high and in cycling in and out of jail, prison and rehab. They mourned the three classmates whose addictions killed them.
In all of the interviews, one thing was clear: Opioids have spared relatively no one in Scioto County; everyone appears to know someone whose life has been affected by addiction.
‘OxyContin Just Started Showing Up'
Purdue Pharma introduced its opioid painkiller, OxyContin, in 1996, when the Class of 2000 entered high school. Some students began experimenting, often combining prescription opiates with alcohol at parties.
For many, what started as a weekend dalliance morphed swiftly into an all-consuming dependence. They swallowed opiates before school, snorted painkillers in the bathrooms and crushed up pills with a baseball on desks at the back of classrooms.
"OxyContin just started showing up at parties around junior year. People wanted to try it. It was fun. It got to where kids were doing it in the parking lot before school. By senior year it was so common." Ashley Moore was a cheerleader and a member of the honor society. Her sister became addicted and is now in recovery. "I started seeing a lot of pills around 15 years old and I told myself I was never going to do them. But kids were selling Oxys at school for $3 a pill. By the time I was 19, I was looking in every medicine cabinet and bathroom. All of my close friends, we all turned into drug addicts." Jonathan Whitt was on the golf team and became addicted to painkillers when he was 16. At 28, he switched to intravenous opioid use and then heroin. He has been jailed at least 10 times and has done multiple stints in rehab. He has been in recovery for four years.
Read the complete artile at NYTimes.com
The high school yearbook is a staple of teenage life. But for some, it reflects the devastating toll of the opioid crisis.
The Minford High School Class of 2000, in rural Minford, Ohio, began its freshman year as a typical class. It had its jocks and its cheerleaders, its slackers and its overachievers.
But by the time the group entered its final year, its members said, painkillers were nearly ubiquitous, found in classrooms, school bathrooms and at weekend parties.
Over the next decade, Scioto County, which includes Minford, would become ground zero in the state's fight against opioids. It would lead Ohio with its rates of fatal drug overdoses, drug-related incarcerations and babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome.
To understand both the scope and the devastating consequences of what is now a public health crisis, we talked to dozens of members of the Class of 2000. Many opened up to us about struggles with addiction, whether their own or their relatives'. They told us about the years lost to getting high and in cycling in and out of jail, prison and rehab. They mourned the three classmates whose addictions killed them.
In all of the interviews, one thing was clear: Opioids have spared relatively no one in Scioto County; everyone appears to know someone whose life has been affected by addiction.
‘OxyContin Just Started Showing Up'
Purdue Pharma introduced its opioid painkiller, OxyContin, in 1996, when the Class of 2000 entered high school. Some students began experimenting, often combining prescription opiates with alcohol at parties.
For many, what started as a weekend dalliance morphed swiftly into an all-consuming dependence. They swallowed opiates before school, snorted painkillers in the bathrooms and crushed up pills with a baseball on desks at the back of classrooms.
"OxyContin just started showing up at parties around junior year. People wanted to try it. It was fun. It got to where kids were doing it in the parking lot before school. By senior year it was so common." Ashley Moore was a cheerleader and a member of the honor society. Her sister became addicted and is now in recovery. "I started seeing a lot of pills around 15 years old and I told myself I was never going to do them. But kids were selling Oxys at school for $3 a pill. By the time I was 19, I was looking in every medicine cabinet and bathroom. All of my close friends, we all turned into drug addicts." Jonathan Whitt was on the golf team and became addicted to painkillers when he was 16. At 28, he switched to intravenous opioid use and then heroin. He has been jailed at least 10 times and has done multiple stints in rehab. He has been in recovery for four years.
Read the complete artile at NYTimes.com
