Earlier this week, on the same day the federal government released horrifying figures about the continuing rise of opioid overdose deaths in this country, President Donald Trump missed a chance to elevate the problem in announcing he would decline to declare an emergency.

Thankfully, he appears to be coming around. On Thursday, Trump said he was ordering up paperwork for such a declaration. His reversal is the right thing to do, for Americans are living in a national emergency. According to the new federal findings, during the first nine months of last year, deaths from drug overdoses hit a record 19.9 per 100,000 residents, a jump from 16.7 per 100,000 during the same period in 2015. The death rate is on pace to approach 60,000 deaths for 2016.

In Colorado, the good news is that death rates for overdoses of prescription opioids dropped, but heroin overdoses jumped. Our overall overdose rate for all of 2016 was 16.1 per 100,000 residents.

Read more at The Denver Post.