Opioid Crisis

KUNC statehouse reporter Lucas Brady Woods takes us inside the halls of power today to explain what lawmakers are prioritizing at the Colorado state Capitol.

Weld County is poised to receive about $1.2 million in settlements from federal opioid lawsuits, and the Colorado Opioid Abatement Council has approved its plans for using the funds. The chair of the Weld County Regional Opioid Council, which created the plan, joins us.

Some people say it’s reasonable for densely populated areas to receive more settlement funds, since they serve more of those affected.

Colorado is getting over $150 million in opioid settlements from CVS and Walgreens.

It's been a year since a local group launched what's called the Colorado Naloxone Project, an ambitious effort to combat the opioid overdose crisis that plagues our region, as well as much of the country. Naloxone is a safe drug used to counteract overdoses. And the project is designed to get naloxone into the hands of people most at risk for overdoses.Dr. Don Stader, chair of the Colorado Naloxone Project, joins KUNC's Yoselin Meza Miranda to discuss this effort.

Last November, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that for the first time, drug overdose deaths topped 100,000 annually. In Colorado, nearly 1,500 people died from drug-related overdose deaths in 2020. We explore local and statewide efforts to prevent overdose deaths and reduce harm.

In 2018, Colorado launched “Lift The Label,” an opioid anti-stigma public awareness campaign encouraging those abusing drugs to seek treatment. But the ads primarily reached one group of people. To address this, the state revamped the campaign to reach a more diverse audience.

Sheriff’s deputies in Washoe County, Nevada, responded to two fentanyl overdoses in a 12-hour span earlier this month.

Fentanyl test strips and better data may be a few of the many solutions to the opioid epidemic and the Mountain West's spike in overdose deaths.

In the high-stakes fight against fentanyl-induced drug deaths, one remedy is fairly simple: blue and white strips of paper. Fentanyl test strips work like a pregnancy test. One line shows up if there’s fentanyl in a solution. Two lines if there’s none. But where are they needed most?