Gottheimer Announces Student Athlete-Stop Addiction Strategy

Pushes Health and Human Services Secretary Azar to Fight Opioid Addiction In College Athletics

HACKENSACK, N.J. — Today, Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) announced his Student Athlete-Stop Addiction Strategy to help protect student athletes from the opioid crisis. Gottheimer was joined by Bergen County Sheriff Saudino, FDU’s Dean of the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences Dr. Michael Avaltroni, Hackensack UMC’s Dr. Michael Kelly, and Gail Cole, the founder of Hope and Healing After an Addiction Death and mother of student athlete Brendan Cole, who was lost to opioid addiction in 2014.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that opioids are the single leading cause of drug-related deaths. That problem is compounded among student athletes, who run the risk of injury every time they step on the field or court. Of the more than 460,000 student athletes competing at U.S. colleges and universities, many are being prescribed opioids after injuries.

Six bipartisan colleagues joined Gottheimer’s efforts calling for Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to focus on the growing college athletes opioid crisis and take steps to address the issue. Gottheimer’s Student Athlete-Stop Addition Strategy requests HHS to aggregate up-to-date data and information; conduct a comprehensive inter-agency assessment of current actions being taken to help student athletes; and for the agency to recommend options for new and improved coordination between the federal government, colleges, students and other stakeholders. It is critical that we have up-to-date information so we can identify the scope and magnitude of this emergency.

“When it comes to the opioid crisis ravaging America’s communities, I fight for families like the Coles, who lost their son Brendan, a former college athlete, four years ago to heroin. As we all celebrated the remarkable student athletes from Villanova achieving the pinnacle of their collegiate careers on the court, we need to demand that America take better care of our student athletes when they are off the court. That’s why I am leading a bipartisan call for the Department of Health and Human Services to step up for college athletes, who are on the front lines of the opioid crisis,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5).

“This epidemic is extremely personal. He had been prescribed opiates for two surgeries and it led down this path from taking them to experimenting. I was just a regular mom, but have become very outspoken. I don’t want his death to be in vain,” said Gail Cole the founder of  Hope and Healing After an Addiction Death and mother of student athlete Brendan Cole, who was lost to opioid addiction in 2014.

“All too often the problem starts on athletic fields and in gymnasiums. It’s going to take an effort from so many different entities to have a positive impact on this situation. I commend the Congressman for his efforts in this situation,” said Bergen County Sheriff Saudino.