Nextdoor post by Steve Lynton:
No letup in Boulder’s drug overdose epidemic
Initial data this year point to a 33% increase, although it’s probably too early to draw inferences from the preliminary statistics. Last fall, Boulder’s former police chief, Maris Herold, warned the City Council that “we are really in an epidemic of overdoses in Boulder.” She termed the city’s “explosion” in overdoses from fentanyl and other drugs “very alarming,” and she cited data to back up her message. By the end of last year, the city’s police force had responded to 123 suspected overdoses, 18 of them fatal. So this month, I asked whether reported overdoses had continued at a similar pace. For the first three months of this year, city police recorded 28 overdoses, 4 of them fatal. That’s an increase by one-third over the same three-month period of 2023, during which police reported 21 overdoses, 3 of them fatal. Of course, these figures are unavoidably incomplete, since overdoses don’t always result in calls to police or incident reports. It’s also early in the year to draw inferences or make predictions, based on a small initial dataset. Nonetheless, Boulder’s statistical analysis is overseen by a PhD criminologist, Daniel Reinhard; and the data provide a solid analytical basis for policymakers and elected officeholders.
Unfortunately, the message from Herold and from others–including prosecutors, health professionals, social workers, and advocates for those caught up in the drug emergency–isn’t sinking in. Clearly, the city’s overdose epidemic isn’t likely to disappear anytime soon. Clearly, Boulder’s first-responders have few tools other than Narcan to address the surge in overdoses. Clearly, drug trafficking and use are key issues in the spread of illegal encampments in city parks and public spaces and in criminal activity associated with those encampments. A survey during Boulder’s point-in-time count in July showed that over half of those living without shelter–64 out of 110 respondents–reported substance addiction. Clearly, Boulder’s criminal justice system has no simple means to address this epidemic. The county jail is at capacity; Boulder lacks a treatment center, such as the new one in Larimer County just north of here, to which addicted misdemeanor offenders might be sentenced as a jail alternative. Boulder’s county commissioners were urged by some elected officials and others last year to target a sales tax extension toward establishing a facility like Larimer’s. They balked; and although there’s been behind-the-scenes talk, no new strategy has emerged. Clearly, the drug epidemic isn’t at the top of the City Council’s agenda.
Former chief Herold’s observation last September seems to ring true today: “You are seeing a system that has high drug addiction –high mental health issues. And there is no help for us right now.”
— MRW