Prepared remarks: Opening Address at the Third Annual Opioid Abatement Conference (Sept. 30, 2024)
Thank you all for being here—during National Recovery Month and on International Recovery Day— for Colorado’s third annual statewide opioid response conference. Earlier this month, I joined Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen to support her Recovery Act bill and stand in support of a critical message—recovery is possible. For all of us here working to address this crisis, those of you living in recovery—like Brittany’s mom, Stacy—inspire us and drive us to tackle this challenge day in and day out.
Stacy Pettersen’s addiction story, like that of so many who have struggled, is a harrowing tale. In one six-month period, Stacy overdosed 20 times. Congresswoman Pettersen looked back on her mother’s challenges and said that “As a family we have been preparing for my mom’s death our entire lives.”[1] To do our best work in fighting this epidemic, one pillar is that we need to celebrate those in recovery and remove the stigma around those struggling with opioid use disorder. While Colorado has made important progress in addressing this crisis— we have much more to do.
In this conference, we will have an opportunity to share ideas and lessons learned from this impactful community of practice. This growing and powerful community is an inspirational example of what we in Colorado can do when we work together to address our challenges. At the same time, this conference will recognize and honor those we lost to this crisis. To that end, we encourage you to visit the “Stories in Black and White” exhibit, which tells the powerful and painful stories of the lives we lost. May their memories continue to live on as a blessing.
One who we lost is Keith Rounds. Keith’s mom Trisha and father Jason are here with us today and will join me on a panel this afternoon. Keith, like many, struggled with opioid use disorder, and became involved with the criminal justice system. After he was incarcerated, he faced the painful prospect of going through withdrawal and determined that he wanted to get well. He asked for treatment while in jail—but was told that none was available. When he was released from jail, he asked for treatment—but was told he had to wait. Trisha, to protect her son, took his phone while he awaited an opportunity to get the treatment he wanted and needed. But he had access to an online video game platform, ordered fentanyl, and took a deadly dose.
Keith’s story is devastating and, unfortunately, not unique. For someone leaving jail or prison and not engaged in a treatment program, the risk of an overdose is 120 times greater than an individual not faced with these circumstances. To save lives, we have provided $3.9 million in funding to ensure that everyone in prison in Colorado has treatment opportunities available and receives continuity of care upon release. On one of our morning panel’s we will hear from Dr. Krueger on how we are using these funds to make Colorado one of the first in the nation to continue methadone, an evidence-based treatment, in the prison setting. In addition, this morning the Department of Law will acknowledge five jails across Colorado that are leading the way in providing medication addiction treatment in jails. We will also continue work to address the problem of social media and online platforms making it too easy to order fentanyl—in some cases, as easy as ordering a pizza.
As we hold this third annual opioid abatement conference, we’d like to reflect over the many impactful investments and partnerships established so far to advance this work:
- My office is on track to securing more than $787 million in funds to the state of Colorado;
- For use of these funds, we launched a publicly accessible Expenditure Dashboard transparently displaying use of these funds;
- To date, over $110 million in funds have been released to Colorado communities;
- All 19 Regions submitted 2-year plans committing $74 million in funding to approved opioid abatement purposes;
- All funds expended through 2023 have been publicly reported ahead of deadline ($14.6M to date);
- You can see the breakdown of anticipated and actual expenditures by category ($20M for Treatment, $17M for Recovery, $11M for Prevention, $7M for Planning and Coordination and $6M for Harm Reduction);
- Out of the state share, we provided funding for the two federally recognized tribes here in Colorado—Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute—for nearly $2M. Please join us for a powerful session this afternoon with indigenous leaders from Colorado sharing their efforts to respond to substance use in their communities;
- We received national recognition on the Connect Effect campaign, which suggests that 40% of youth have seen the campaign—you will hear more about this campaign this afternoon with Rise Above and youth directly; and
- The Colorado Opioid Abatement Council issued its guidance on the use of opioid settlement funds, which I recommend you spend time reviewing.
As we approach developing strategies around how to most effectively and impactfully spend the over $787 million in settlement funds Colorado recovered from Big Pharma and their enablers, it bears some recognition of the key role of collaboration. Let me thank Heidi Williams, our first opioid response director who is here with us today, and Jamie Feld, our current opioid response director, as well as the entire Opioid Response Unit team for their tireless work. Most importantly I want to thank you all—regional council members, affected individuals, elected officials, advocates, and community members.
The community of practice here is a tribute to what we can accomplish in Colorado when we work together. Our framework for investing these opioid settlement funds is widely hailed as one of the best in the country. And it’s not just me saying that—the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the Principles Coalition, which are represented here today by Kristen Pendergrass and Sara Whaley, recognized Colorado as the first recipient of its excellence award for management of opioid settlement funds. And John Oliver, who called out states for failing to transparently report on how they spend opioid settlement funds, recognized Colorado and North Carolina for our exemplary approach to transparency.
These results did not happen by accident, and it was not only hard work that made them possible. We recognize that many of you dedicated countless hours, including many in volunteer capacity to not only build this framework, but also spearhead the implementation. Since the development of our framework, we aligned on core principles—(1) the funds should be invested by those at the grassroots level, which is why 90% of the funds are being spent there; (2) all funds must be reported transparently so the public sees how these funds are spent; (3) we must remain committed to supporting communities that faced infrastructure challenges, which is why we created a special fund focused on such communities; and (4) that we be committed to building a community of practice that continues to stay connected to support and learn from one another, which is why we are excited to hold our third annual statewide opioid response conference here in Loveland. We are encouraged by your attendance, dedication, and commitment to shared learning and look forward to strategizing ways to continue this learning over the course of the year.
At last year’s conference, one extraordinary highlight was the extent to which the regions learned from one another. Another highlight was how the San Luis Valley region, admirably led by Alamosa County Commissioner Lori Laske, explained their commitment to learning from people with lived experience. In the Valley, the community took time to reflect on what its core needs were—and listened to those in recovery. The feedback was that the Valley needed more treatment and more recovery housing.
This summer, I went to the Valley to celebrate a remarkable accomplishment—the opening of the first substance abuse treatment facility in a very long time and the opening of a new recovering living facility. For me, this was a deeply meaningful full-circle moment. In the summer of 2017, I went to the San Luis Valley and met with Alamosa County Sheriff Robert Jackson, who told me that 90% of those in the county jail were struggling with opioid use disorder. He added that “I can’t help them; we need a treatment facility here in the Valley.” The San Luis Valley is one of the hardest hit parts of our state for many aspects, including overdose death rates. In July, I joined Robert and Commissioner Laske at the opening for such a facility, aptly named “Hope in the Valley.”
Those achievements in the San Luis Valley are just one example of the transformative steps being taken on account of the leadership of those in this room. Indeed, we are announcing today 19 new awardees of our Impact Grant, which are listed on the screen. Overall, we awarded $8 million in Impact Grants. We received a lot of compelling applications and were sorry we could not fund more programs.
As for compelling programs to fund, I want to make clear that I will be doing all I can to ensure that Colorado can provide Naloxone free of charge so we can save lives. As many of you know, federal funding has dried up for our state’s critical Naloxone program. It is most frustrating and plainly unacceptable not to have long-term dedicated funding for such a life-saving effort. I was encouraged to learn, however, that the State Behavioral Health Administration will be contributing several million dollars to maintain continued programming. And our office is committed to doing our part, which is why we are also going to provide those funds to ensure that the necessary budget remains in place for the next year. Going forward, we will be developing options to ensure that Colorado continues to have the funds it needs to support this life-saving effort and ensure that we don’t have a gap in funding.
In terms of the work ahead, one role today’s conference can play is to share lessons learned to help all of the regions gathered here. To that end, we will have a panel this morning on best practices from different regions. On that panel will be Amber Ptak, from Community Health Partners, who developed a white paper for our regions to learn from one another. In terms of lessons shared and captured in the white paper, it focuses on the importance of developing: (1) a shared vision; (2) a commitment to ongoing reflection and learning; (3) practices that advance transparency and effective communication with all stakeholders; (4) sustainable plans for the long term; and (5) a spirit of true collaboration.
At today’s conference, we will have almost 50 expert speakers and moderators on an incredible agenda. Many individuals helped us develop this tremendous program. In particular, let me thank our Colorado Opioid Council members, Opioid Crisis Recovery Funds Advisory Committee, and Substance Abuse Trend and Response Task Force for their leadership, expertise, and guidance on these efforts. There are so many people whose engagement has helped shape our agenda, but two individuals bear mention—MJ Jorgenson and Dr. Lesley Brooks, who both went above and beyond in helping us plan this event.
We would not be able to hold this event without the hard work from a wonderful team at the Department of Law. As I mentioned, Jamie is doing tremendous work leading our dedicated opioid response team that includes Jack Patterson, Natalie Sandoval and Christian Dykson, with granting and outreach support from Robyn Steuer, Danielle Holmes, and Mindy Baumgardner. And the Opioid Response Unit has a lot of work on its plate, including supporting the Colorado Opioid Abatement Council and disbursing over $100 million thus far. Over the last three years, our team has done an incredible job. In addition to our opioid response team, a number of Department of Law employees have volunteered and provided support to make today possible. Please direct your attention to the screen listing those individuals and give them a round of applause.
In the true spirit of collaboration, we want to thank our four sponsors, Region 2 – Larimer County Regional Council; Region 3 – Weld County; Region 4 – Northeast Region; and Larimer County Commissioners –for inviting us to Northern Colorado and sponsoring the conference. These three 3 Northern Colorado Regions along with Larimer County have helped make the conference accessible to more of our community.
I would also like to thank our regional council primary contacts and council members and everyone who is engaged with and participates in any of the 19 regional opioid abatement councils. I also recognize that many people here today are not yet involved in a council, committee, Region, or task force and are part of this community of practice. We look forward to you getting more engaged. After all, to address this crisis, we need all hands-on deck. Together, I am confident that we will develop stronger community and solutions.
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The opioid crisis is devastating. With the increasing availability of fentanyl—which is 50 times as potent as heroin—and new emerging drugs, Colorado is at greater risk than ever from this crisis. But the availability of naloxone, removing the stigma around addiction, and providing more treatment, recovery and other opportunities makes our communities safer, provides dignity and saves lives. And here in Colorado, we are committed to meeting this moment with a spirit of innovation, collaboration, and tireless dedication. Thank you all for your leadership.
[1] https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=36b957e1-aa3f-4e7e-8f5b-476f66174235