USA TODAY High School Sports
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2nd September 2015
When painkilling becomes an addiction for young athletes
Cameron Weiss’ mom remembers the competitive streak in her blonde-haired, smiling boy who started soccer at age 5.
“When all the little 5-year-olds would cluster at the ball, he’d be right in there, trying to get the ball,” she said, laughing. By the time he was playing football for La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, N.M., he was thriving in competition, becoming a wrestler, too.
But it began to unravel. He broke his collarbone at football practice sophomore year. An urgent care center prescribed him the opiate Percocet — an oxycodone painkiller, which he took immediately and again after surgery. But afte