By Lindy Browning | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice
Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell and Delta County Sheriff Mark Taylor have had a constant battle fighting the opioid crisis in their counties since 2017, when it first started impacting western Colorado.
MESA COUNTY
When opioids first appeared as fentanyl on the Western Slope in 2017-18, each pill cost $18. Now, because of increases in the supply, they are $2 a pill.
“Fentanyl is a 45-minute high, and we see people taking up to 40 pills a day. It makes zombies out of people in our community,” Rowell said.
In Mesa County, according to Rowell, law enforcement and first responders have had to administer Narcan – a medication that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose – 114 times in the last year.
“That’s one person every three days,” Rowell said. “It’s pretty common that we get a call about an overdose and they have already been given Narcan by their friends by the time first responders and law enforcement gets there.”
Officers have seized approximately 500,000 fentanyl pills in Mesa County, Rowell says. Sadly, about 20 people have died this year of an overdose in the county.
The majority of opioid users are unable to work because of their addiction, and they turn to crime in order to fund the addiction.
“A large portion of the theft we see in the county funds the habits of the drug user,” Rowell said. “I have 100 people in the Mesa County jail that are on medicated assisted treatment (MAP), a treatment mandated by new state laws.”
That program is costing taxpayers about $1 million a year, according to the sheriff.
“One of the main things that need to happen, we need to increase the mental health services available in the area. We need to be getting Narcan to families who have an addict in the home,” Rowell said.
He also indicates that he would like to see legislative changes to put more funding toward mental health and drug addiction services in the community.
It’s imperative that anyone who is distributing fentanyl, in any amount, be charged with a felony, and a harsh sentence should be imposed upon conviction, Rowell added.
“Jails are not the best place to deal with addiction,” he said.
Trained mental health and addiction professionals are needed to determine why people are addicted, and identify any co-existing mental illness, Rowell says.
Some of the reasons people become addicted is that they have had surgery or an injury that required opiates for pain, and then were taken off the drugs and found themselves addicted. They then turn to the streets for that continued pain relief be it physical pain or the pain of addiction, Rowell says. Some people also use the opioids to self-medicate untreated mental illness, he adds, and that some people develop mental illness because of the use of illicit drugs.
DELTA COUNTY
Last month, the Delta Police Department took 7,000 fentanyl pills off the streets.
“We have had 83 drug cases and 64 of them had a fentanyl nexus. We have also had 27 overdoses,” Taylor said.
Changes in Colorado laws have made it more difficult to stop or slow the drug epidemic. A clear correlation between drug use, mental health illness and homelessness can be seen, Taylor says. He, like Rowell, notes a direct connection between addiction and property crime.
“Theft, burglary, motor vehicle theft, trespassing and violence all have direct ties to drug use and addiction,“ Taylor said. “We deal with people often who have the nexus between drug abuse and mental illness and they become more emboldened because there are no consequences as a result of changes to the law.”
Most jails in western Colorado have Jail Based Behavior Service (JBBS) programs. The JBBS program in Delta County is provided through a contract with Behavioral Health and Wellness in Grand Junction.
The program is designed to support sheriff’s offices with providing critical services to people with substance abuse and mental health needs. It provides screening, assessment and treatment coupled with robust transition (from jail through probation) case management to aid in the successful reentry into the community.
Services also include medical health services, mental health services, drug treatment, employment, housing, educational opportunities, life skills training, transportation and other wrap-around services.
“The thought process behind the JBBS services is helping reduce recidivism. If we can help the people who want to be helped…If we can save one person, it’s worth it,” Taylor said.
Both Taylor and Rowell say controlling the southern border is critical to significantly reducing the supply of fentanyl in Colorado.
“China sends the chemicals to Mexico, the cartels make and distribute these deadly drugs over the border and find local dealers to distribute the drugs to our citizens,” Rowell said.