AHS Views

It looks like the University of Iowa’s Hawkeyes are going to have to make some serious changes. In the last year, 11 team members have been in trouble with the law: one for theft and unauthorized use of a credit card, several are involved in a sexual assault charge, several more for drunk driving and now two Hawkeyes have been arrested on drug charges. It looks like this team really needs addiction help.

One of the players, James Lee Cleveland, was found with 21 OxyContin pills and 24 doses of a muscle relaxant called caprisoprodol. Although muscle relaxants aren’t normally thought of as addictive, caprisoprodol works by blocking pain sensations from being sent to the brain and can cause both addiction and dependency.

Is Cleveland taking these drugs to be able to keep playing despite an injury? If so, that wouldn’t be uncommon. Now it appears he’s off the team. If he was injured, it would have been better to stop playing until the injury was healed - he probably would have been able to use the drugs for a shorter period of time and not risk getting addicted to or dependent on them. Now he probably needs addiction help. Who knows if he’ll get it?

Of course the guys who’ve been charged with drunk driving should have gotten addiction help long ago as well.

Drugs and alcohol can bring a team down pretty fast - other players have already been suspended or kicked out altogether. It’s a shame to see a good athlete’s promising future shot down with alcohol and drugs.

If more team managers and coaches took players using drugs and alcohol more seriously and made sure they got the addiction help services they need, these guys would have a much brighter future.