The Colorado Opioid Abatement Council this week approved roughly $2 million in infrastructure grants to six organizations helping combat the opioid crisis, which has killed more than 8,500 Coloradans over the past two decades.
These grants are the first awarded from the statewide infrastructure share, which is 10% of the settlement the Colorado Attorney General’s office reached with opioid manufacturers and distributors.
“In particular, these grants will provide much needed support to those affected by the opioid crisis in our rural and underserved communities as well as spur innovative strategies for addressing this crisis,” Attorney General Phil Weiser, who chairs the council, said in a press release.
Some of the state’s counties with the highest overdose rates have the smallest populations, those with 50,000 or less, according to the Colorado Health Institute.
Formed in 2002, the institute seeks to improve the health of Coloradans through research and analysis to support state and local decision makers.
Among the awardees:
• Douglas County and Valley Hope Association (in Region 12) – $250,000 to support the Building Hope Parker Project to expand care and treatment capacity.
• Arapahoe County and Arapahoe County Public Health (Region 9) – $344,723 for its Mobile Outreach program to expand harm reduction services to those at the highest risk of death, particularly in remote parts of the county.
• Thornton Police Department (Region 8) – $130,000 to create a Naloxone Plus Program with a coordinator to follow up on overdose cases with services to assist in long-term recovery.
Fremont County and Buena Vista in Chaffee County also received grants.
Dr. Josh Blum, and director of outpatient substance use disorder treatment at Denver Health and a Colorado Opioid Abatement Council member, said the grants will help local communities by increasing access to prevention and treatment services.
“I’m especially gratified that we are awarding these funds across geographically diverse communities, serving urban, suburban, and rural populations hard-hit by the opioid crisis, and that these funds will fill in gaps for capital improvements not often covered by other grant opportunities,” Blum said in a statement.
Infrastructure grants are intended to promote capital improvements and supply operational expenses that provide prevention, harm reduction, criminal justice and treatment services, particularly in underserved communities battered by the crisis.
These funds are also intended to promote collaboration between the state’s 19 opioid regional councils.
In 2020, Colorado had roughly 1,500 drug overdose deaths, a nearly 40% increase since 2019.
The age-adjusted death rate, which allows public health officials to compare communities, was 24.9, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. While in the mushy middle compared to other states, Colorado’s age-adjusted overdose rate is higher than those in Alabama (22.3), California (21.8) and Arkansas (19.1).
The COVID-19 pandemic is believed to have had an unprecedented effect on access to treatment and support because of the closures and subsequent recession as well as the social distancing measures put in place to curb infections.
Opioids in 2020 accounted for nearly two in three overdose deaths in Colorado, according to CHI.
The Colorado Opioid Abatement Council — which was created by the Colorado Department of Law to provide oversight — is expected to award another $3.2 million in infrastructure grants later this year.
Colorado is anticipated to receive roughly $700 million in opioid settlements are over the next 18 years, according to the Attorney General’s office. The state currently has about $39.1 million to distribute.
