The worst of the COVID pandemic is largely behind us, but the economic and social consequences will linger for years.聽Our recovery has also been impeded by another public health crisis: the epidemic of opioid misuse impacting both rural and urban communities.
Fentanyl is devastating families and is more visible in our city than it was a few years ago.聽As of August, 132 people died to fentanyl poisoning 鈥� nearly half of all overdose deaths in Denver this year.聽Even small amounts of fentanyl can steal someone鈥檚 life, and it抖阴ap being used to lace other drugs, posing an even graver risk.
Fentanyl and methamphetamines are also fueling crime and making it harder to serve those living on the streets. Putting the label 鈥渉omelessness鈥� on this problem doesn鈥檛 accurately describe the challenge we鈥檙e facing or the solutions needed to resolve it. More broken lives make it harder and costlier to get unhoused individuals suffering from addiction into stable, safer and healthier environments.
The best-selling author Sam Quinones, who has written extensively on this epidemic, points out there are no easy solutions, but a combination of harm reduction and enforcement is needed to fully address public health and public safety problems.
While this manifestation of the opioid epidemic may be new, we鈥檝e been working to deploy more resources to shore up capacity with addiction service providers, taking new approaches to connect those suffering from addiction to treatment, including our Wellness Winnie mobile health unit and the expansion of the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) Program, and bolstering our public health programs to stem rising opioid overdoses, such as increasing the availability and distribution of naloxone and drug testing resources.
Our City Attorney, Kristin Bronson, helped lead a coalition of cities and counties from across Colorado and the nation that, in partnership with Attorney General Phil Weiser, are holding drug companies accountable for deceptive practices that flooded our communities with more potent opioids in the first place.
The fentanyl crisis is part of the broader and more widespread challenge of behavioral health. For decades, resources directed at behavioral health have languished at the national level, leaving local communities to pick up the pieces and support an increasing number of very sick people.聽Stigmas around mental and behavioral health grew and left people unwilling to seek help for fear of being abandoned. Inequities in our healthcare systems have left many communities behind, particularly communities of color.
Earlier this year, I met with families who lost loved ones to fentanyl.聽Their pain is burned into my memory and prompted my call for needed changes in state laws on criminal possession of fentanyl and fueled my administration鈥檚 focus on resources and priorities.
In my 2023 budget, $20 million of our American Rescue Plan funds will be dedicated to enhancing and expanding wellness services, with a specific focus on treatment and recovery. Over the next two years, Denver will receive our first $8 million from the national opioid settlement.
We鈥檙e working to see these dollars directed toward supporting service providers and improving the capacity of treatment programs, including expanding Denver鈥檚 behavioral health provider network to improve the availability of services; investing in telehealth and other mobile integrated approaches to care and treatment delivery; improving the city鈥檚 substance misuse response with supportive housing, residential treatment, medical detox services, peer support services and counseling; and covering behavioral health services for people living with HIV, particularly people of color. Our public health officials are also preparing to expand services, including medicated assisted treatment in our jails.
We鈥檙e working to support a full continuum of care for people experiencing addiction, including covering costs when personal finances or insurance fall short and expanding mobile response teams to reach people where they are. We will also hire more police officers to go after anyone who preys on the sick and vulnerable.
Abandoning sick people to live and die on the street is inhumane.聽Open and flagrant drug use in our public spaces is unacceptable. It抖阴ap beyond time to bring as much determination to the opioid epidemic as we have to the COVID pandemic.
Denver is a compassionate community. This crisis begs for more compassion. A policy of compassion must also have consequences for those who refuse treatment. Our budget is a step in this direction that I hope will save lives and make our streets safer. Just as we came through COVID, I believe we will come through this crisis if we are driven by compassion that is firm.
Michael Hancock is the mayor of Denver.
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