Even after my breath stopped, the world kept turning. Eighteen hours were lost, fading in and out in a hospital room, and the morning after I was released I held a 7am meeting as though nothing had happened. The realization that everything would go on even if I didn’t was unsettling, yet somehow comforting at the time. It took weeks to shake the dissociative feeling that my former self had died that day and I’d entered a parallel universe – this is my body, but it’s not. These are versions of my loved ones, but they don’t know I’m not the same version of me. I am not supposed to be here. I was apathetic to the lows and highs of conversations, and yet, noticed that the leaves of trees glowed richer shades of green than before. I almost never saw a tree again. I almost never saw the expansive Coloradan sky over my head, or felt another breeze, or let the crisp air fill my lungs, ever again. But I am still here. I. Am. Still. Here.
August 31st is International Overdose Grief Day, a day for survivors to reflect on what almost wasn’t. A day to remember our loved ones and the many others who passed suddenly, here one day and gone the next. Overdose feels like an invisible killing fog, taking more and more lives while being accepted as something that happens, something justifiable, something natural. This is by design – the eugenics-based concept infecting the veins of this country since its foundation touting that certain individuals are naturally inferior to justify why less resourced people live shorter lives without disturbing the white supremacist patriarchal capitalist machine keeping it that way. (Interestingly, Teva and Padagis, two of the largest manufacturers of naloxone nasal spray, which is used to reverse overdoses, are based in Israel – I’ll let the reader connect the dots). Overdose is commonly discussed as an individual’s problem – not as the epidemic that it is despite spanning across race, class, and gender to impact every type of person in our society – though of course, our most marginalized, most criminalized, and least resourced members are always hit the hardest.
City of Denver’s Reporting on Overdose Deaths
The City of Denver’s website recognizes that “Denver is experiencing an unprecedented increase in overdose deaths”. The dashboard with medical examiner data regarding fatalities show these statistics for the general Denver population, apparently updated with today’s date (https://denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Public-Health-Environment/Medical-Examiner/Medical-Examiner-Data#section-3):
- 2020 – 370 total drug-related deaths, 162 of which are fentanyl-related
- January through June: 177
- 68 (18%) people experiencing houselessness
- 2021 – 472 drug-related deaths, 240 fentanyl-related
- January through June: 231
- 92 (19%) people experiencing houselessness
- 2022 – 453 drug-related deaths, 244 fentanyl-related
- January through June: 221
- 124 (27%) people experiencing houselessness
- 2023 – 598 drug-related deaths, 389 fentanyl-related
- January through June: 293
- 220 (37%) people experiencing houselessness
- 2024 – 483 drug-related deaths, 277 fentanyl-related
- January through June: 255
- 164 (34%) people experiencing houselessness
- 2025 – 563 drug-related deaths, 376 fentanyl-related
- January through June: 310
- 171 (30%) people experiencing houselessness
- Half of 2026 (January – June) – 286 drug-related deaths, 191 fentanyl-related
- 104 (36%) people experiencing houselessness
When reviewing these statistics, we see clearly that overdose is not uniquely a houseless issue, and the majority of reported fatal overdoses are happening to people who are not unhoused and overdose in their homes. That being said, houseless people are overrepresented in terms of percentage of overdoses as compared to the percentage they make up of the entire Denver population. The criminalizing narrative that associates overdoses with being unhoused is one that strips unhoused people of the necessary harm reduction resources and reporting that would save lives.
Instead, unhoused people are under attack from excessive enforcement now more than ever, with daily sweeps directly resulting in increases in overdoses and overdose deaths. For those who manage to access a shelter bed, shelters and housing programs across the board lack harm reduction policies – or don’t follow them – and supplies. It is unclear from how the data is presented if sheltered houseless people are even included in the numbers reported on the public dashboard. HAND’s social media pages are chock full of stories surrounding rampant stigma and discrimination, with drug use being used as a reason to strip people of their legal rights surrounding private property, and folks using drugs are at far higher risk of losing shelter and being exited to the street despite their increased need for safety and support.
These are not just numbers to us. We feel these losses on the streets every day. Our community is dealing with the loss of close friends over and over again. The pain is deep and has paralyzing effects on community members. No one should have to deal with this much loss of friends and family. It is too much.
Take Action Against Prop 132: The Fentanyl Ballot Measure
HAND is a proud coalition partner of Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition (CCJRC) who is currently leading the legislative fight in Colorado against drug overdoses through increasing public education around the compounding negative impacts of Prop 132 and the sinister player behind it, Advance Colorado.
Taken straight from GetTheFactsCO.org is a breakdown of the damaging effects of this legislation:
- Prop 132 would:
- Make any amount of fentanyl possession a felony, even first-time cases.
- Punish a person sharing even one pill with the same mandatory 8 to 32-year prison sentence as the highest-level drug trafficker.
- Require mandatory sentences even if the person didn’t know fentanyl was present & no money was exchanged.
- Send nearly 900 more people to prison each year.
- Cost taxpayers $433M in the first 5 years.
- Prop 132 would NOT:
- WOULD NOT increase penalties for the highest-level drug traffickers.
- WOULD NOT reduce drug use or drug sales.² ³ ⁴
- WOULD NOT disrupt the drug supply.³
- WOULD NOT reduce overdose deaths and is projected to increase them.¹ ² ⁴
- WOULD NOT expand access to treatment. Prop 132 provides no funding for the treatment it mandates and could increase wait times at treatment centers.
- Sources:
- ¹ Barocas, Joshua. ‘Projected Overdose Mortality Outcomes Under Colorado Ballot Initiative #85′ (Memorandum), June 2026
- ²The Pew Charitable Trusts. ‘More Imprisonment Does Not Reduce State Drug Problems: Data show no relationship between prison terms and drug misuse’. March 2018
- ³Harris, Katharine Neill. ‘Controlled Substances: Federal Policies and Enforcement’ Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, 11 March 2021
- ⁴Colorado Behavioral Health Administration. ‘Measuring the Health Impacts of Felonizing Fentanyl Possession’ CU School of Medicine and School of Law, January 2025
Regarding Advance Colorado, whoisadvancecolorado.org reveals how billionaires are funding over half of the ballot initiative proposals for 2026 through Advance Colorado in order to:
- Increase criminal sentences and expand ICE power
- Block clean energy policy to align with fossil fuel interests
- Cut taxes for the state’s wealthiest residents
This is not what the majority of Coloradans want for Colorado. Advance Colorado’s Fentanyl Measure does not serve the purported goals of reducing overdoses but will instead perpetuate more deaths, fill prisons, and cost Coloradans hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for the perpetual suffering. Take the time to do the deep dive and educate yourself and your loved ones so that we can fight back against the millions in dark money being used to manipulate and subvert everyday Coloradans.
Today, we grieve overdose:
- Because nobody should ever die of overdose
- Because stigma exists to shame and hide overdose
- Because systems have been defunded to cause more overdose
- Because criminalization is used over support for those who use drugs, exacerbating the issue
- For poor and working people forced to navigate drug use while working and existing in public space without options for rehab or support that actually meets them where they’re at
- For those who died due to lack of education on overdose reversal
- For those who survived and are asking why
- For those who died alone
“I lost the love of my life to a fentanyl overdose and there isn’t a day I don’t think about her, or if I could have saved her. I’ve lost so many friends and family over the years. I’ve Narcan’d more people than I can remember, and OD’d more than 20 times in my life. I continue to push forward for her, my community, my family, those who continue to struggle, and those we’ve lost because they were those who cared for me, and I am alive because of them.” – Ana Miller
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