Golden, Colorado — There's little time to waste when somebody is experiencing a fentanyl overdose.
In Arapahoe County, Colorado, final December, officers used Narcan to seemingly convey a girl again to life after she took an unlawful drug laced with fentanyl.
"It did kill me," the girl, who requested that her identify not be used, advised CBS Information. "I used to be lifeless. They stated had they not gotten my coronary heart again, I might have been lifeless or had everlasting mind injury."
The main reason behind overdoses is fentanyl, the artificial opioid that is 50 instances extra highly effective than heroin. Overdose deaths topped 100,000 for the primary time ever in 2021, based on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, with almost 70% of them involving fentanyl.
Colorado noticed an virtually 70% enhance in deadly fentanyl overdoses from 2020 to 2021, with greater than 900 deaths complete final yr, based on the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Surroundings.
Fentanyl is flooding the state, coming in through the interstates and highways as a result of the cartels understand that by going by way of Colorado, they will attain huge components of the U.S.
"You have acquired the I-25 hall that runs north-south from Mexico. You have acquired the I-70 hall that runs east all the way in which throughout the nation," stated Cole Finegan, U.S. lawyer for the district of Colorado. "So there's loads of alternative ways as soon as one thing comes into Colorado the place it could actually transfer."
Day by day police stops all through Colorado discover fentanyl hidden in autos, with the stockpile of proof rising.
"Fentanyl retains coming," stated Col. Matthew Packard, chief of Colorado State Patrol. "It's a poison that's constantly infecting, not solely Colorado, however each neighborhood all through this nation."
Packard stated these promoting fentanyl are pushed by revenue and "don't care what number of physique luggage are a consequence."
Including to the urgency, police say the cartels are making fentanyl seem like sweet, making it extra engaging to younger folks.
Kim Osterman's 18-year-old son, Max, died from fentanyl poisoning final yr.
"They're intentionally doing this to kill the kids," she stated. "They're advertising and marketing it to the kids."
It is a provide chain police try to choke off, however reveals little signal of shutting down.