Prestigious University Affected by the Opiate Crisis
Going to college is a rite of passage for many American teenagers. College is a time full of last-minute cramming, endless pots of coffee, parties and experimentation. While most college kids are away from home for the first time in their lives, it’s not shocking that they usually experiment with drugs and alcohol, if they haven’t already done so before college.
With their new-found sense of freedom, away from mom and dad, they are able to make their own decisions and choices without their parents breathing down their neck. Some students will make the right choices, go to class and get good grades while others fall into a world of parties, drugs, alcohol and irresponsibility. Ultimately, the choice is theirs.
Lately, with the opiate crisis going full-speed, the scene at most college parties seems to have changed. Years ago, college parties were characterized by loud music, scantily-clad coeds, endless amounts of beer and liquor, drunk frat guys and partygoers throwing up in the bushes on their way out. In some areas of the party, people might be smoking weed or sniffing some coke and as far as drugs go, that’s pretty much where it stopped. You staggered home at the end of the night, slept off the hangover and went to class on Monday. And yes, some people got hooked on the coke and they kept partying well into the week, only to end up flunking out of school and going home to try to get their lives back together.
Now, college parties are a bit different. There is still the binge drinking, the drugs and maybe waking up next to someone you don’t remember going to sleep with. But now, the drugs have changed. Opiates are all-too common at college parties and the results can be catastrophic. Drink a few beers, pop or sniff a couple of pills and before you know it, someone has overdosed. Kids don’t know what they’re buying from their dealers anymore. They might think they’re getting Percocet but might actually be getting pure Fentanyl. One pill and they’re in big trouble.
Recently, a prestigious university has seen its own troubles with the opiate problem. At Johns Hopkins University, a regular weekend frat party ended with four students requiring hospitalization after being revived with Narcan. Police officers showed up to the Delta Phi fraternity house after responding to a noise complaint. They found 4 students overdosed on opiates. First responders were able to use Narcan to reverse the action of the opiates and the students were sent to the hospital and later released.
Baltimore City Police Chief T.J. Smith said “It's a warning, this is a warning. I mean, parents shouldn’t have to worry about their children going off to college and using some of these drugs that are really killing people."
Students of the university were bewildered by the news the of the overdoses. One student said, “It’s a shame that it happened, but I guess in a college environment these kinds of things could happen.” The newly formed Opiod Overdose Taskforce will be investigating what happened along with detectives to try and trace the drugs back to the dealers.
It’s a scary time to party in our modern society. While wild parties have been a part of the “college experience” for long time, they’re more dangerous now than ever. Besides worrying about alcohol poisoning and date rape, now attendees have to worry about whether or not the drugs they choose to take will kill them. While they’re in college to get an education and make the most out of their lives, it takes only one bad decision to ruin everything for themselves and their families.
