Substance Abuse Prevention

Although the abuse of substances can be a law enforcement issue, it always a public health issue that requires ongoing prevention and intervention efforts, as well as access to treatment and recovery services.

The Office of the Attorney General continues to support various efforts to prevention and intervene with substance abuse, including the following:

• Active participation on the Colorado Substance Abuse Trend and Response Task Force
• Support for the Take Meds Seriously Campaign for safe use, storage and disposal of prescribed medications.
• Funding of substance abuse prevention through the local Boys and Girls Clubs across Colorado.
• Investigations into criminal drug activities and prosecution of drug cases, such as:
  • Operation Chump Change netted 273 pounds of brown heroin valued at $40 million.
  • The largest civil suit settlement in the U.S. against retailers of the dangerous drug ‘Spice.”
• Training of law enforcement personnel in the laws about marijuana.
• Marijuana education for students.

The Office of the Attorney General maintains an active partnership with:

• Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, which works on improving coordination between social services and law enforcement to assist children impacted by parental substance abuse.
• Rise Above Colorado, which works to impact teen perceptions and attitudes about the risks of substance abuse to help youth make empowered, healthy choices.
• Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention, which provides a coordinated, statewide response to reduce the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs.
• U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, coordinating on investigations and on National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

Rx and Heroin Maps provides awareness through mapping the rise of deaths to prescription drug and heroin epidemic. Often times society loses perspective on who this is.  The fact is, these loses are everyday people we love, everywhere.