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While overdose deaths across Colorado dropped in 2018, Weld County’s overdose deaths reached a record high, according to state data released this week.
The total number of overdose deaths in Weld reached 40, up from 34 deaths in 2017. Kirk Bol, manager of the state’s Vital Statistics Program, said there were no more than nine overdose deaths in any year for Weld from 1975-1998.
The record high is largely due to the county’s massive influx of population, which has increased from more than 175,000 in 1999 to more than 315,000 in 2018. In 2018, there were 12.69 overdose deaths per 100,000 in 2018. The county’s highest rate was in 2015, when there were 13.36 overdose deaths per 100,000.
Deaths involving opioids, including all prescription opioids and opioid pain killers, jumped from seven in 2017 to 18 in 2018. Statewide, opioid deaths fell from 373 in 2017 to 349 in 2018.
Kendall Alexander, an administrative director at North Range Behavioral Health, said he found the county’s uptick in opioid-related deaths shocking. He applauded local and statewide efforts to increase access to opioid antagonists like Narcan. Administered as a nasal spray, Narcan is used by the Greeley and Evans police, as well as Weld County Sheriff’s deputies, when responding to drug overdoses.
While the opioid crisis remains an issue across the state and nation – though opioid-related deaths in Colorado dropped from 373 in 2017 to 349 in 2018 – one of the bigger issues in Weld County continues to be methamphetamine, Alexander said. In 2018, 12 people died from overdoses involving meth. In 2017, that number was 11 – up from single digits in previous years.
Authorities have said most meth making its way to Weld County comes from Mexico, where it’s taken up to Colorado and distributed to smaller dealers. U.S. Border Patrol agents have seized an increasing amount of meth in the past few years, including 56,362 pounds of the drug in 2018, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website.
Though meth-related deaths in Colorado are nearing opioid numbers, the former reaching 318 deaths across the state in 2018, the national focus on the opioid crisis has created more support for prevention and intervention programs.
In September 2018, Colorado’s Office of Behavioral Health received $38 million through September 2020, as a federal State Opioid Response grant. That follows $15.7 million from May 2017 to April 2019, as a federal State Targeted Response grant. As of May, the office has:
- Funded 190 new family services facilitators and served 354 family members,
- Provided medication-assisted treatment to 2,012 underinsured or uninsured people,
- Trained 530 prescibers to provide buprenorphine, a drug used in medication-assisted treatment,
- Connected 614 people to treatment through Peer Recovery Coaches,
- Provided 487 people medication-assisted treatment before or upon release from jail,
- Distributed 28,256 kits of opioid antagonists.
Alexander said the other major substance abuse issue in Weld County is alcohol. Data for alcohol-related deaths was not included in the state’s overdose data. An average of six people die of alcohol poisoning each day in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
