Opioids_Who_Is_Using.qxd

1

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. On December 15, 2016, one such victim was Jacob DeGroote, a popular student-athlete from Arizona.

A Different Epidemic

I n many ways, he was the ideal American boy. An all-star athlete and academic, he had a longtime girlfriend. He was well-liked and hardworking, juggling two jobs at once. His smile lit up the room. And at age 20, Jacob DeGroote was dead. A clean-cut young man from the Phoenix, Arizona suburbs, he didn’t look like a junkie . It started when someone gave him a pill at school. From there, he took another. And another. Soon, he was using black tar heroin. The smart young man had a 4.2 grade point average. Notre Dame’s football program was recruiting him, and he had been offered a full ride at Northern Arizona University. He also had a big problem. His mother was a nurse in a hospital emergency room. But even she didn’t know he was addicted to opiates.

7