The latest numbers show how tragic and complicated Colorado's drug problem is.
under consideration by a bipartisan group of legislators currently grappling with the topic.
One thing that's not in doubt is the scope of the situation in Denver and Colorado as a whole. Steven Castro, manager of operations for the, says that the city probably won't have final numbers for 2021 until the end of April or early May. But as of February 25, the DDPHE estimated that there were 449 drug-related deaths in Denver last year, and 220 of them were related to fentanyl.
The percentages are similar in the statewide numbers offered by Kirk Bol, a CDPHE statistician and epidemiologist who notes in an email that the department may not have final totals until early May."We have recorded 1,659 total drug overdose deaths among Colorado residents in 2021 through routine vital records/death certificate registration ," he says.
Bol's stats indicate that many, if not most, overdoses are caused by a combination of drugs rather than just one. Here are the numbers for drug deaths in Colorado from 2018 through 2021 in eight categories: total overdose deaths, as well as overdoses involving opioid analgesics, heroin, total opioids, fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and alcohol. Overdoses in which multiple substances were involved are counted more than once.