From 2020 through 2022, 12 people in Routt County and 19 people in Moffat County died from drug overdose deaths, according to the nonprofit The Health Partnership.

From 2016 to 2022, 474 people overdosed on drugs and ended up in the emergency department in Craig or Steamboat, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Moffat County ranked among the top three Colorado counties with the highest rate of opioid (prescription or heroin) overdose deaths in 2021, according to the Colorado State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 105,303 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2023 and two-thirds of those deaths involved synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, according to OverdoseDay.com.

Those sobering statistics are why the nonprofit Health Partnership serving Northwest Colorado is spearheading regional educational efforts for International Overdose Awareness Day on Saturday.

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The outreach includes special events this Saturday morning and Saturday, Sept. 14, as well as the promotion of new educational videos featuring local experts, a survivor and the parents of a Steamboat Springs High School graduate who died from fentanyl poisoning in 2017. The five short videos aim to provide valuable information on the dangers of fentanyl, the life-saving potential of naloxone, and personal stories that highlight the impact of fentanyl on individuals and families.

“The more individuals we can educate about the fentanyl crisis and how to use naloxone to save a life, the safer our community,” said Brittney Wilburn, executive director at The Health Partnership.

A powerful video at TheHealthPartnership.org/education features Steamboat parents Alden and Susan Globe speaking about the loss of their daughter Maddy Globe, a 2014 SSHS graduate. Going into her senior year at University of Colorado Boulder, Maddy Globe obtained a supposed Xanax pill from a neighbor. That illegal pill was laced with fentanyl, and Maddy did not wake up after taking that one pill in August 2017, her parents said.

Her parents believe their daughter would be alive if her friends knew about the use of Narcan to reverse an overdose and Good Samaritan laws that protect people if they help someone who has overdosed.

“This other student was with her, and left her in the morning,” father Alden Globe describes in the video. “He perhaps thought she was snoring, but she was dying. He was not familiar with the signs of a fentanyl poisoning, but snoring is part of it as your breathing shuts down because the drug relaxes your central nervous system.”

“She died shortly after that and was not found for another 12 or 14 hours,” Globe said.

The parents continue to speak out and stress that the best defense against drug overdose deaths is for people to work to increase awareness by reading and talking about the dangers.

“There is a stigma around drugs, overdoses and addiction that goes back decades, so people’s eyes tend to gloss over that news because they think drugs have no part of my life,” Globe said. “The times that we live in now, Naxalone and Narcan is the new first aid. It’s nothing to be afraid of; everyone should have it.”

The videos feature another testimony by Steamboat resident Charlie Peddie, who suffered many serious injuries, broken bones and surgeries as a competitive youth snowboarder and was prescribed opioid pain killers.

“My brain started to develop this knowledge that it likes opioids,” Peddie said. “Slowly but surely this drug just began to become a very, very consistent part of my life.”

Later in life Peddie’s opioid use became something he had to do to go to work. A family intervention led to his treatment at The Foundry in Routt County.

The Health Partnership invites people to host a video viewing event with friends and neighbors or to put up a lawn sign, available through The Health Partnership, letting the community know the household supports people in recovery.

The theme of this year’s International Overdose Awareness Day on Saturday is “Together We Can,” and more information if available at OverdoseDay.com. Now in its 24th year, International Overdose Awareness Day is observed in more than 40 countries.

September is National Recovery Month, and The Health Partnership offers a variety of opportunities through the RISE program, or Recovery, Insight, Support and Empowerment, which is the new name for what was previously called Clean and Sober. The new name aims to be inclusive for all pathways of recovery.

RISE offerings in Steamboat and Craig range from Recovery Coffee and Conversations to yoga, hikes and Friday bowling nights. More information is available at Facebook.com/cleanandsobersteamboat.

The partnership’s Community Recovery program also provides one-to-one peer support to individuals struggling with or in recovery from substance use disorder. Learn more at TheHealthPartnership.org/recovery-support.