As deaths from opioid overdoses rise nationwide with the surging proliferation of fentanyl, La Plata County public health officials and various community institutions are ramping up harm reduction efforts. San Juan Basin Public Health will expand services at the Manna resource center later this spring.
On Monday, students at Fort Lewis College organized an educational event in recognition of Black Balloon Day, a day marked on calendars to remember those who have died of overdoses. Support for the event came from a broad range of stakeholders including the college, Recognizing Opportunities Around Resilience coalition, SJBPH, Centura Health Corp. and Advocates for Recovery.
Much like other recent events held at Animas High School and SJBPH, it included education on what harm reduction is, how to deploy basic harm reduction interventions and free tools, such as the opioid reversal drug naloxone.
“This is the wave of the future,” said Maggie Seldeen, the founder and executive director of High Rockies Harm Reduction, at a Fort Lewis College event Monday evening. “... All we’re asking is to treat human beings with compassion. But that’s a novel approach compared to the way we’ve been treating them.”
Community members familiar with opioid addiction are working increasingly hard to provide harm reduction resources that can address the most devastating impacts of the opioid crisis.
Free naloxone distribution is one part of that; the drug can reverse an opioid overdose, is legal for anyone to carry or administer, and has no known allergies or adverse impacts when administered to someone even if they do not have opioids in their system.
Harm reduction events also usually offer free fentanyl test strips. The synthetic opioid is 50 times stronger than heroin and is showing up in everything from fake Xanax pills to counterfeit oxycodone or even cocaine. Because of its potency, the drug is frequently mixed into other substances and marketed as something else, meaning overdose victims are often unaware that they ingested fentanyl.
These efforts are widely recognized as the first steps necessary in combating opioid addiction.
“No one can recover from substance use disorder if they're no longer with us,” said SJBPH Executive Director Liane Jollon. “From a very basic public health perspective, giving people the tools and the information to stay alive is the very first step to recovering from substance use disorder.”
Later this spring, SJBPH will expand its harm reduction program and establish a comprehensive harm reduction site at Manna. The site will include access to free naloxone and fentanyl test strips, as well as educational resources, testing for hepatitis C and HIV, and ways to access various recovery care providers.
It will also include a safe needle disposal and access to sterile needles. Acceptance of these programs, which can be controversial, is growing across the country.
“By doing harm reduction events, people think we’re encouraging people to go out and do drugs – and that’s just not the case at all,” said Lt. Joseph LaVenture, a member of the Southwest Drug Task Force at Monday night’s discussion.
SJBPH began its harm reduction program in late 2021 and is expanding it with the help of $331,187 from American Rescue Plan Act funds distributed by the county.
“This is bringing together all these known tools that fall under the standard of care for harm reduction programs in one place so that folks who need those resources can access them without having to work really hard to find them,” said SJBPH spokeswoman Megan Graham.
Studies have shown that syringe service programs do not increase drug use. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, users of such programs are five times more likely to seek treatment and three times more likely to stop using drugs. They also make it less likely that dirty needles turn up in undesirable locations and can reduce needle-stick injuries to law enforcement.
The correlation between needle exchange programs and reduced HIV and hepatitis C levels in the community has also been established in numerous scientific studies. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has previously identified La Plata County as a community with high levels of sexually transmitted infections as well as blood-borne viruses, Jollon said.
Harm reduction efforts such as naloxone access and syringe service programs are all a part of heightened action to address substance abuse in Southwest Colorado. The results of a feasibility study commissioned by the county to assess whether an inpatient treatment facility could be constructed in the building that used to house the Robert E. DeNier Youth Service Center are expected sometime in the next two months.
“Most people will experiment with drugs at some point in their life, and they don’t deserve to die for that,” Seldeen said. “And that’s what we’re seeing.”
rschafir@durangoherald.com
