{"id":570313,"date":"2021-04-05T07:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T11:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/?post_type=article&p=570313"},"modified":"2021-04-01T16:35:34","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T20:35:34","slug":"the-opioid-crisis-was-americas-epidemic-before-covid-research-suggests-that-overdoses-hurt-student-achievement","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/article\/the-opioid-crisis-was-americas-epidemic-before-covid-research-suggests-that-overdoses-hurt-student-achievement\/","title":{"rendered":"The Opioid Crisis Was America\u2019s Epidemic Before COVID. Research Suggests that Overdoses Hurt Student Achievement"},"content":{"rendered":"

L<\/span>ong before the emergence of COVID-19, the United States was struggling to contain a years-long opioid crisis that took tens of thousands of lives every year. Now, with Oxycontin manufacturer Purdue Pharma still negotiating billion-dollar penalties<\/a> for its role in the two-decade drug epidemic, experts have begun taking the measure of its impact on student learning.<\/p>\n

In a working paper<\/a> released last November, researchers found persuasive evidence linking fatal overdoses around the country to lower test scores for students in hard-hit counties. The trend is particularly pronounced in rural communities, which have been especially ravaged by the spread of ultra-addictive substances like heroin and fentanyl.<\/p>\n

Rajeev Darolia, a professor of public policy at the University of Kentucky and one of the study\u2019s authors, said in an interview that children living in areas battered by successive waves of narcotic abuse were twice-afflicted \u2014 not only by the stress caused by deaths in their homes and neighborhoods, but also by the lack of public resources required to mitigate it, such as drug counseling and mental health clinics.<\/p>\n