NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 2020
For more information, contact:
Jamie Stebbeds
608-845-5558
Jamie.Stebbeds@fatalvision.com
www.fatalvision.com
A New Tool For Preventing Opioid Addiction
Verona, Wisc… The newly released Fatal Vision Opioid Goggles®, created by the company famous for the Fatal Vision® Alcohol Impairment Simulation Goggles®, will help combat opioid addiction across the country and around the world. “Education and outreach are an essential part of overall efforts to address complex problems like opioid abuse. It’s an effort we took very seriously by working with experts in the field to develop the Opioid Goggles,” says Michael Aguilar, Innocorp’s president and CEO.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 128 people die every day from an opioid overdose. Opioid abuse accounts for $78.5 billion in healthcare, lost productivity, treatment, and criminal justice costs. It is a huge problem in the U.S. To help communities address this ongoing crisis, Innocorp created the Opioid Goggles.
Like Fatal Vision’s Alcohol Goggles and Marijuana Goggles®, its Opioid Goggles models the experience of being “under the influence” without the danger of taking the drugs. These modeled effects include divided attention failure, nodding out, contrast sensitivity impairment, heaviness, and lethargy. Like its predecessors, safety and prevention advocates use the Opioid Goggles in community safety programs to educate the public.
Innocorp tested the Opioid Goggles in West Virginia and Virginia; two states hit hard by the opioid epidemic. Octavia Marsh, executive director of Virginia’s Hanover Cares Coalition, and Mary Ball, project coordinator of West Virginia’s Advocates for Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, had experience with the other Fatal Vision products and were eager to take part in a focus group with students and board members.
“People aren’t aware of how they would feel on opiates,” Marsh explained. “The wow factor of the experience allows people to go away and talk to others about it… It’s definitely something parents and adults can benefit from.”
“This is an amazing tool that addresses an issue everyone in the prevention field has been trying to provide information about,” Ball said. “Our coalition recommends this as a great addition to informational presentations.”
Innocorp develops and manufactures impairment education and awareness products, including Fatal Vision® Alcohol Impairment Simulation Goggles, SIDNE®, and intoxiclock®. Since its inception almost 20 years ago, the Verona, Wisc.-based company has supported safety education programs like Marsh’s and Ball’s and those in police departments, post-secondary schools, high schools, the military, and many civic and community organizations in more than 100 countries.
