Drug overdose rates — both fatal and non-fatal — increased by more than 20% in Denver through July of this year, the highest levels the city has seen since 2023, when nearly 600 people died from drug use.   

It’s not immediately clear if this trend is occurring statewide or only hammering Colorado’s most populous city.

If the trend persists, Denver would be on track to surpass the number of non-fatal cases in 2023, when more than 3,000 overdoses were reported.

Insofar as fatal cases, the months of March and May this year recorded the highest number of overdose deaths in the last six years.

All told, a city dashboard showed a 22.7% spike in non-fatal overdoses through July of 2024, rising from 1,545 the year before to 1,906, and a 21.9% hike in fatal overdoses, from 224 to 273, over the same period.

“It’s an absolute crisis that must remain on the top of the agenda,” said Eric Anderson, who has worked on campaigns to promote recovery and reduce overdoses. “Imagine if this many people were dying from homicides or car accidents. I’m perplexed why it’s not getting more attention.”

“We are continuing to be in the worst overdose crisis we’ve ever been in, with the most unregulated supply we’ve ever seen,” added Lisa Raville, executive director of the Harm Reduction Action Center.

Opioids, such as fentanyl, are the leading cause of overdose deaths, making up nearly 70% of fatalities in the city.

Policymakers have been grappling with the fentanyl epidemic, which produced intense fights two years ago over how to confront the soaring deaths from the synthetic opioid.

Used legitimately as a medical anesthetic, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has become a dominant player in the illicit market and is increasingly being mixed into other substances. It’s cheaper and produces a more potent, more fleeting “high,” according to experts. But its potency in small quantities makes it unlike any other substance that preceded it.

The policy battles over fentanyl and how to penalize those who carry it have pitted “harm reduction” advocates, who argue that the solution is not incarceration, against the families of individuals who died of overdoses, law enforcement and district attorneys, who believe tougher punishment will serve as a deterrent.

At the state Capitol, lawmakers this year turned down a bill that would make possession of small amounts of fentanyl a felony.

In 2022, the Colorado General Assembly passed a bill creating programs for fentanyl use prevention, education and treatment, as well as updating fentanyl-related offenses.

Under that law, unlawful distribution, manufacturing, dispensing, or sale of any compound with fentanyl or carfentinil would earn a Level 1 drug felony if the substance weighed more than 50 grams, with a heightened penalty if the distribution resulted in death.

A Level 2 drug felony charge would be assessed if the substance weighed over 4 grams but less than 50, and a level 3 drug felony would be charged for weights under 4 grams.

“We’re not really sure why there is an increase. We have an incredibly unregulated drug supply with many different drugs in the fentanyl supply such as xylazine, nitazenes, btmps, and para-flourofentanyl,” said Raville, who advocates from the harm reduction side of the debate. 

She added that the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner can’t tell toxicology results in real time, which means the public will have to wait 12 to 18 weeks, during which time the entire drug supply can shift, she said. 

Raville said the city saw the highest number of overdose deaths in a single month — 63 — last March.  

She suspects there are a number of reasons for the increase in overdoses in both Denver and across the country, including more people using alone, new suppliers, and stronger forms of fentanyl.   

“Most immediately,” Raville told The Denver Gazette, “we need on-site drug checking, overdose prevention centers, a safe/regulated drug supply, and methadone access in pharmacies.”

On the other side of that debate are people like Andrea Thomas of Grand Junction, who leads Voices of Awareness.

Thomas this year testified at the state Capitol in favor of Senate Bill 44, which sought to make manufacturing, distributing or selling any amount of fentanyl and related illegal synthetic opioids a Level 1 drug felony, carrying prison terms ranging between eight and 32 years and up to $1 million in fines.

Thomas said her 22-year-old daughter was a drug-free young woman just 60 days ago.

Today, she is lost in addiction, suffering from severe psychosis, Thomas said. 

Thomas said the dealer continues to distribute illicit drugs with very little accountability.

“How does the state allow a man like this to continue walking free, destroying lives and tearing families apart?” she said. 

“When human life is at stake, we must take swift and strong action. No more leniency for these distributors,” Thomas said. “Colorado’s current approach has failed by tying the hands of law enforcement. We must establish real consequences for those manufacturing and distributing fentanyl. We must eliminate sentencing loopholes that allow repeat offenders to continue this destruction.” 

Lawmakers also heard from a former drug dealer, Marshall Weaver, now of Loveland, who got clean after 13 felony arrests for distribution and 27 years of addiction to heroin and meth.

“I didn’t care about people’s lives that I was endangering. I didn’t care about the devastation that it was causing. I didn’t care that a single mother couldn’t pay her rent or her food. I just cared about my money,” he said. 

Changing the penalties around manufacturing, selling and possession with an intent to distribute would be a start to getting a handle on the problem, Weaver said.

Until this year, the non-fatal overdose trend in Denver had been going down — from the high of 3,029 in 2023 to 2,620 last year.

This year so far, that number has already reached 1,906.

Deadly overdoses showed a similar trend — from the high of 598 in 2023 to 483 last year.

This year, 273 people have already died, and July isn’t over yet.

Anderson, co-founder of the communications and research firm SE2, said youth prevention has the highest ROI over the long term.

“I hope Denver prioritizes this,” he said.

In his State of the City address, Mayor Mike Johnston recounted the story of a young man who died of a drug overdose alone in a stairwell.

“When we can find her, we will call his mother to tell her that her lost son, the one she prays for every morning and every night, that her baby boy is never coming home,” the mayor said. “And that’s not good enough.”