As a high-school football player, John Haskell was used to getting banged around. But his fourth concussion was a game-changer — because a doctor prescribed a powerful painkiller for his throbbing head.
"He looked in my ears, checked my hearing, checked my eyes. And the next thing I know, I'm at CVS getting Vicodin," the teen said.
At just 15 years old, Haskell joined a different kind of club: student athletes who get hooked on opioids, and sometimes graduate to street drugs, after getting hurt on the field.
Haskell developed a dependence on pain pills and then got addicted to heroin, which was even cheaper. Now 18, he is sober and doing well, but experts say his experience should serve as a warning for other injured players and their families.
"As a parent, you need to take a more advocating role and ask your provider why are they going this route?" said Dr. Harold Shinitzky, a sports psychologist. "Why is it automatically an opioid or a painkiller?"
For more on Haskell's story, watch our TODAY show report on young athletes who go from chasing their dreams to chasing a high.
