The flow of fentanyl to the United States in the near future will probably continue to be diversified. The emergence of India as a precursor chemical and fentanyl supplier as well as China’s newly implemented regulations have significant ramifications for how TCO [Transnational Criminal Organizations] supply chains will operate. Mexican TCOs are likely poised to take a larger role in both the production and the supply of fentanyl and fentanyl-containing illicit pills to the United States…
— from an unclassified DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) intelligence report, January 2020.
If you research the deadly drug fentanyl, you can easily get the impression that Mexico, China and India are at the heart of America’s problems. During a recent Google search, nearly every article I came across mentioned at least one of these countries.
I was not able to find any website that discussed the amount of fentanyl manufactured annually within the United States.
Senator Brittany Pettersen (D-Lakewood), Chair of the state’s Behavioral Health Transformational Task Force, released a statement yesterday, in reference to news that Colorado is on track to surpass its record-breaking overdose death toll from 2020. Her statement reads, in part:
One overdose death in our state is too many, but we are seeing [more than five] Coloradans die from this disease every single day. As the daughter of someone with a substance use disorder, I know the pain and anguish families feel when a loved one is struggling with this condition and are unable to get them the help they need.
I’m proud of the work we have done to increase access to the life-saving treatment people desperately need, but our work is far from over. My colleagues and I have been serving on the state’s Behavioral Health Task Force to improve access to behavioral health services and ensure that mental health and substance use disorder care is available to everyone who is ready to get help, and to families who are fighting to save their loved one.
We have a long road ahead of us, but I remain committed as ever to ending the stigma surrounding substance use disorders, and will continue fighting to create an accessible and equitable behavioral health care system that allows all Coloradans to get the vital care they need and deserve…
The news to which Senator Pettersen refers was shared on the Colorado Politics website. An article by Seth Klamann was posted on Wednesday, citing preliminary data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment showing that an average of 4.2 Coloradans fatally overdosed each day during the first eight months of 2020.
This year, the average number exceeded five per day.
From that article:
State figures show at least 1,340 Coloradans have overdosed in 2021, though that is not complete for the last third of the year and will increase as more data are received and processed by the state, said Kirk Bol, the manager of the state’s Vital Statistics Program. The [annual total] overdose death toll in 2020 was 1,477, itself a significant jump from 2019’s 1,072 deaths.
Earlier in this editorial series, we heard from Pagosa Springs Police Chief William Rockensock.
“…I hate to put it this ways, but — when people who are addicted can’t get one type of drug, they search out another. They tend to use whatever they can get their hands on. So certain drugs fluctuate. When they can’t get meth, they use heroin. When they can’t get heroin, they use Oxycontin or meth.
“So we see that fluctuation of what’s available at any given time. What’s coming through, or what’s being sold. Especially in the Four Corners… But now, it seems to be fentanyl. Because it’s easier to get, at the moment. There seems to be a larger supply available.”
The Chief was here discussing a range of potentially deadly drugs, some of which are available with a doctor’s prescription, but all of which are being sold on the black market in Colorado. And killing people.
It would appear that we have several related issues driving drug abuse in our community. One is the issue mentioned by Senator Pettersen at the beginning of this editorial: Coloradans with a “substance abuse disorder”. In many cases, this disorder is brought about by mismanaged medical care. A person with no history of drug abuse is prescribed an analgesic opioid like Oxycontin and, for whatever reasons, becomes addicted. For personal or financial reasons, the addict then enters the black market to meet his or her needs with illegal opioids available from dealers with connections to national or international supply chains.
In other cases, the addict has entered the black market without any assistance from the medical profession, in an effort to self-medicate and find escape from psychological challenges. These folks are often classified as having “behavoral health” or “mental health” issues, and as Chief Rockensock tells us, they will self-medicate using whatever drugs are available and affordable at the moment.
Some professionals see drug abuse and the existence of the underground drug market as mainly law enforcement problem — that the primary goal of government ought to be to minimize illegal drug traffic.
Other professionals see the drug issue as mainly a behavioral health issue — and that the primary goal of government ought to be, to help individuals free themselves from drug dependency.
Some, who are more cynical, see both efforts as relatively hopeless.
Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners might be facing a proposal, within the next couple of months, to put government resources and staff effort into limiting — through the creation of new land use regulations — the constitutionally-guaranteed right of medical caregivers to serve their patients, and constitutionally-guaranteed right of the private individuals to grow their own marijuana with what many consider the safest, least harmful recreational drug in common use in Colorado.
One key problem here, as I see it, is that limiting the availability of Drug A tends to drive persons — persons who may be suffering from “substance abuse disorder” — to abuse Drug B instead.
Wouldn’t it be a more sensible decision… for our community leaders to put serious efforts into the drugs that are killing people?