Pubdate: Thu, 11 Feb 2016
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2016 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: David Olinger

DRUG OVERDOSE DEATHS HIT RECORD LEVELS IN RURAL COLORADO

Drug overdose deaths are reaching record levels in a surprising 
corner of Colorado: the windswept southern counties where ranchers 
graze cattle and farmers raise corn.

In eight counties stretching from Baca west to Rio Grande, yearly 
overdose deaths have reached the highest level measured by the 
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Denver and Adams 
counties have hit the same level- 20 or more deaths per 100,000 
residents - along with two other Colorado counties.

Altogether, every one of Colorado's 64 counties except Mineral, a 
sparsely populated county in the mountains, has experienced a rising 
drug death rate in the last 12 years.

Drug overdoses have been on the rise nationally for several years, 
driven by deaths from heroin and powerful prescription painkillers.

Colorado ranked 12th in the nation for "nonmedical use" of opioid 
painkillers in 2012 and 2013, according to state statistics.

A recent report on substance abuse in Colorado suggested the overall 
rate of hospitalizations and deaths from prescription opioids in the 
state has leveled while those related to heroin use continue to rise. 
Prescription drug death rates remain nearly nine times as high 
statewide as those for heroin, however, and heroin deaths have 
concentrated in the cities.

The heroin trade is finding its way to some of Colorado's poorest and 
least populous counties.

"We are getting more referrals for heroin, along with prescription 
drug abuse" said Kristina Daniel, chief operating officer of the San 
Luis Valley Behavioral Health Group, a regional mental health center 
in Alamosa. "We have a need for services in our area for sure."

Among Colorado counties, the most striking increase in drug deaths 
occurred in Baca, the agricultural county bordering Kansas and 
Oklahoma. Its death rate approximately quintupled in 12 years.

"We do know that heroin and prescription drugs are what's driving the 
increase across the board. Cocaine has actually decreased as a 
cause," said Tamara Keeney, a policy analyst at the Colorado Health 
Institute who used federal data to compare county-by-county death 
rates from 2002 to 2014.

"It was surprising to us to see that it wasn't just the urban counties."

Jackson County in northern Colorado and Delta County on the Western 
Slope also were in the highest category.

In Las Animas, Bent County Coroner Dave Roberts said the statistics 
reflect what he has seen in his 14- year tenure.

"When I first started, therewere hardly any overdoses," he said. "Now 
it's really prevalent."

Roberts said many are caused by prescription painkillers "and an 
influx of methamphetamines and cocaine. It's amazing the amount of 
meth that's in small counties."

Among the prescription painkiller deaths, "I'd say most of them were 
stolen and most of those were in the oxycodone family."

Roberts hasn't seen a fatal heroin overdose yet. But in Pueblo, the 
most urban county in southeastern Colorado, Coroner Brian Cotter said 
"an explosion of heroin use" has affected his county.

He's also seeing cases of people who died from taking a combination 
of prescription drugs. "That has grown quite dramatically as well," he said.

Sadly, Roberts said, the average age of death is the early 30s.

He particularly remembers one woman in her 30s who had no known 
history of drug abuse. There was nothing in her room to suggest a 
drug death, he said, "until I rolled her over and found a hydrocodone 
pill under her on the bed."
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