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CHARLESTON -- Two local high school football games will be included in West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's Opioid Abuse Prevention Game of the Week program.
This week's games of Brooke versus Wheeling Park, set for Thursday at West Liberty University, and Weir versus Oak Glen, set for Friday at Oak Glen High School, have been selected by Morrisey's office to help kick off this year's program.
Each week, the initiative engages with student athletes, coaches, school officials and communities across West Virginia. Field representatives discuss the dangers of opioid use with the respective coaches and provide educational material for display and distribution in the schools to foster more discussion of the issue.
The week culminates with the Attorney General's Office staffing an information booth at each of the select sporting events to distribute opioid abuse awareness materials.
"Alleviating the opioid scourge is vitally important to making our state the best it can be," Attorney General Morrisey said. "This epidemic has taken too many of our young people and left children without parents. As long as we work together, we will make a difference."
The initiative, now in its second year, is part of a broader partnership to tackle opioid use in high school athletics. It involves the Attorney General's Office, West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission and the West Virginia Board of Medicine.
The Attorney General and his partners worry the usage of opioid painkillers to treat athletic injuries could lead to increased dependence, abuse and addiction.
This initiative pushes other forms of pain management. Alternatives include physical therapy, non-opioid painkillers, acupuncture, massage therapy and over-the-counter medication.
Parents and caregivers are urged to discuss alternative treatment plans with their child's healthcare provider.
If an opioid proves necessary, they are encouraged to strictly use the medication as directed, closely monitor their child's use, safely dispose of any unused pills and talk about the inherent dangers of misuse, abuse and sharing.