The state of Colorado is in the middle of an opioid crisis that is being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic – the combination of which is cause for alarm as Coloradans continue to lose friends and family members to opioid overdoses every day.
According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, overdose deaths in the state increased by 37% between January and June of last year, as compared to the same time frame in 2019. In the Denver Metropolitan Area alone, which includes my home Arapahoe county, this increase now stands at an incredible 293%.
The devastating effects of the opioid crisis hurt Colorado long before the COVID-19 pandemic started. But the pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities that many at-risk of overdose face every day: isolation, stress, and economic hardship. The reality is that the opioid epidemic within the pandemic has taken the lives of too many we know.
Colorado has an opportunity — and frankly a duty — to equip more Coloradans with a potentially lifesaving opioid overdose reversal medication, such as naloxone, by offering it to at-risk patients at the same time they fill an opioid prescription.
This is why I am sponsoring SB21-011, which requires pharmacists to offer high-risk patients filling an opioid prescription that is 90 morphine milligram equivalent or higher, one of the rescue drugs on the market known as Naloxone. Naloxone is an FDA-approved medication that is used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. But it’s only effective if someone has it when the situation calls for it.
To date, 10 states have enacted laws that mandate the co-prescribing of an opioid overdose reversal medication such as naloxone for at-risk patients at the same time they receive their opioid prescription and several other states are advancing legislation this year. In addition, Federal healthcare leaders – including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – have added to the call for expanded access to Naloxone.
States that have passed laws that increase access to opioid overdose reversal medications have seen a 9-11% reduction in opioid-related deaths. Moreover, recent research from Pew has confirmed that expanded access to naloxone can reduce opioid overdose deaths.
I am proud to champion Colorado Senate Bill 21-011, which requires Colorado’s pharmacists who dispense an opioid to offer an opioid overdose reversal medication to those at-risk of an overdose event. This bill empowers pharmacists, who are often the last stop for an at-risk patient, to educate patients who may be at-risk of an overdose event about reversal medications such as naloxone and equip them with it at the pharmacy counter in a non-stigmatizing way.
I have heard directly from many of my constituents over the past year about how the pandemic has made the lives of those who struggle with opioid abuse even more challenging. I’ve heard firsthand about how COVID-19 has created a ripple effect that has left many in despair and struggling for hope.
According to testimony on the bill from Corinthiah Brown, one of my constituents who lives in recovery from opioid addiction, there is shame and stigma for opioid addicts coupled with a fear of having opioids cut off from their doctor. As an addiction counselor, Ms. Brown told the committee it would be much better to have a pharmacist offer naloxone to high-risk patients and will result in more lives being saved.
For me, this bill is more than hope. It’s based on what we know works, and it will save more individuals from receiving the phone call that their son, daughter, friend, or neighbor has died of an overdose.
As a state senator, I will always fight for the health and safety of my constituents.SB21-011 is a critical step we can take from preventing even more overdoses in Colorado from becoming fatal.
Colorado Senator Rhonda Fields serves Senate District 29, which covers Arapahoe county. Sen. Fields is the Assistant Minority Leader of the Senate and chair of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee.