The Burlington County Coalition for Healthy Communities hosted a kick off event at Lenape High School to unveil a tool kit for coaches, trainers, school nurses, parents and young athletes to highlight the dangers of opioid prescribing for sports injuries.

MEDFORD — Coaches and athletes across Burlington County will now have a new tool kit filled with information about getting educated on prescription drugs, especially those prescribed to student athletes for injuries.

“What we hope is that by reading through this, having this information, you can provide it to parents (and) educate yourselves,” said Joe Conlin, the Burlington County Healthy Communities Coalition Coordinator for Prevention Plus.

The “tool kit” was put together by 17 regional coalition groups across the state that cover all 21 counties and focus on the prevention of drug abuse. The organizations, through a grant from the state’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services and a partnership with the New Jersey Prevention Network, worked to put together this tool kit, which contains information about the risks of opioids that are prescribed for sports injuries.

According to a survey from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, 12 percent of male athletes and 8 percent of female athletes had used prescription opioids in the 12-month period that the study was conducted.

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