Overdose Reversal Kiosks Showing Up Around Northern Colorado

There are a lot of things you hear about, but until it's a part of your world, it doesn't really sink in how many people may be affected.

Drug overdoses are one of those things. Occasionally a celebrity death will remind us that drugs have no limits on their hold on people, even those who are successful or rich. Oftentimes, the media will state it as an accidental drug overdose. No matter how it's classified, it's the loss of life.

Turns out that opioid drug overdoses in Northern Colorado are bad enough, that there is a need to have life-saving opioid overdose reversal medication available throughout the community. The North Colorado Health Alliance is making sure it's available.

Recently, I took my daughter and her friends to see the Barbie movie at the Lyric Cinema. When I went to use the bathroom, I had a moment. I was staring at this thing that looked like I should grab a free newspaper out of it, but what I could grab was Naloxone. The boxes are just sitting there to take if you need one.

Technically they are called Reversal Project Naloxone Access Kiosks. According to the map of locations they can be found at over 30 locations across Northern Colorado including businesses, police stations and libraries.

The North Colorado Health Alliance says their partners and the community "have done significant work to break down the stigma associated with substance use to better support their friends, families, and people they may not even know. The Reversal Project comes alongside many other overdose prevention strategies in the region including the naloxone mailing program, provider and community education and overdose prevention training and naloxone distribution, Overdose Awareness Day Events, and improved access to Harm Reduction Services."

A new study by Addiction Treatment Magazine shows a lot of Coloradoan are searching for rehab. They showed "Colorado is in ninth place with 246 rehab-related searches per 100,000 people."

Turns out that since the pandemic substance use has soared. Isolation was a big part of it. North Colorado Health Alliance provided that "Larimer County had 84 Fatal Overdoses, a 44% increase��from 2020 (58 deaths). Of the 84 overdoses in 2021, 38 involved Fentanyl, a 55% increase from 2020. All but two of the overdoses in 2021 involved multiple substances (Wilkerson, 2022)".

Get our free mobile app