The Body Of An Ivy League Overdose Victim Sat Five Days Before Being Discovered

Gage Bellitto died alone three days before Christmas. This wasn’t another overdose death that occurred on the streets of a big city, or in the back room of some dirty drug den. Bellitto died in his Ivy League dorm room in the affluent halls of Columbia University–after an overdose of what were thought to be illegally purchased opioids.

Kyle Bellitto, Gage’s mother, and Glenn Bellitto, his father, are both Harvard graduates and work in the areas of law and finance. They live in a well-respected community with an average income exceeding $200,000 annually. This is a tiny window into the way that the opioid epidemic has transcended stereotypical demographics.

Addiction isn’t a problem reserved for those who live in poverty and grow up on city streets. It can impact anyone, anywhere, and at any time. The abuse of prescription drugs combined with the widespread availability of heroin and fentanyl have created an ever-growing rise in overdose deaths that span respected college campuses throughout the U.S.

According to interviews with the New York Post, Bellitto had shown symptoms of an ongoing problem with substance abuse all through his high school years, and his friends reported that he regularly manipulated doctors in order to gain prescriptions to scheduled medications that he didn’t necessarily need. This included everything from stimulant medications used for attention deficit disorder and anti-anxiety medications used to treat severe symptoms of anxiety and insomnia.

Source :- inquisitr