Thread by @shayshinecastle

Still the same presentation (now Slide 32) but a new thread bc I don't want any of these things to get conflated. Now: Fentanyl overdoses. documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocVie…

Dr. Gujral: It's really hard to get city of Boulder data specifically on this without have to suppress some of it, bc the numbers get quite small. (And they would run into privacy concerns)

Emergency room visits for fentanyl overdoses in Colorado have increased from 150 in 2019 to 1,047 last year.

In BoCo, those numbers went from 7 to 38 emergency room visits due to fentanyl overdoses.

Opioid overdoses as a whole were at 98 last year (again, emergency room visits) up from 70 in 2019.

"I want you to remember that 98," Dr. Gujral said. Of those, 20 were youth age 18-24 year olds, 34 were 25-29 year olds, and 46 were 30-39 year olds — at least half of the opioid overdoses in BoCo

More men than women in this group as well, Gujral says.

Gujral: Right now, no apparent racial or ethnic disparities. Some recent increase in Hispanic and non-white, non-Hispanic emergency room visits, but not enough yet to indicate a trend or disparity.

Meth is still the leading cause of overdose death in Colorado, followed by fentanyl.

In BoCo, meth is the leading cause of overdose death, with non-specified opioids (anything that's not meth, heroin or fentanyl) following, and *then* fentanyl.

This is 2018-2021 data, for both.

Georgia Babatsikos: We saw our number of clients remain steady, but the demand for services increased. (Handing out syringes and Narcan). "We saw people really struggling with during the COVID" pandemic, Babatsikos says.

"We need to secure ongoing, non-grant-related funding," Babatsikos says. "Some of our partners are doing it on a low budget or no-budget. It's bare bones."

BoCo's harm reduction programming is what Babatsikos is talking about. It includes providing clean syringes, distributing anti-overdose drugs and testing for Hepatitis C and HIV.

And syringe litter cleanup. Forgot to mention that.

They would like to add the ability to test drugs so people can check them for fentanyl (very small amount can be fatal), but there doesn't appear to be funding yet.

Such programs have been operating for 20 years in other countries, Babatsikos says.

Babatsikos: Research shows that drug users who interact with *any* of these programs are 5X more likely to seek treatment for their addiction.

Nick Goldberger (who has the most fabulous hair and mustache) is here from the BoCo drug task force. Giving their own update on fentanyl from the law enforcement perspective. bouldercounty.org/safety/sheriff…

68% of our 116 operations last year were in Boulder, Goldberger says.

"Fentanyl... it is certainly in our town."

Goldberger: Since March of 2020 we've had 16 cases, 8 from city of Boulder. 6 cases open in the county; 2 of those are in Boulder.

Nick Goldberger apparently prefers to go by Nico. Apologies to you and your mustache, Nico.

How is fentanyl getting to our community? Goldferger says 80-90% is from "the borders, every which way" but also online, which delivers directly to residents who then sell them.

"Its everywhere," Goldberger says of fentanyl. "Boulder is not special in that regard."

"Fentanyl is the easy killer right now that we're trying to get," Goldberger says.

Dr. Gujral: We have started to meet with the school districts, using those relationships we started during COVID. We are v worried about kids taking a Xanax and it being laced with fentanyl.

Wallach: Why would somebody who is manufacturing pills or drugs do it in a way so that they're lethal? That seems to bring attention to what they're doing, to not be a smart thing to do. Is it done for fun?

Goldberger: The odds of them getting caught are less when it comes from farther away. And the biz decision comes down to the fact that fentanyl is cheap and addictive.

"It's just a business to them," Goldberger says.

That's the end of the public health briefings for tonight.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thanks.