You can’t get better if you’re not alive.
This simple sentence can change a lot. It can change how people view the world and how they provide care to others. It can change the tools we’re willing to use. It’s the phrase I’ve seen spark light in people’s eyes, helping them see a different way of thinking, a different way of recovering.
When I started a harm reduction program in Carbondale back in 2020, giving out free Narcan (an overdose-reversing nasal spray), I expected pushback. I expected people to not understand at first.
“I don’t know anybody who uses drugs.”
“I don’t need Narcan.”
“We don’t have a problem here.”
“Abstinence is the only way to recover.”
These are the most common, and incorrect, statements I hear on a regular basis.
Ninety-five percent of Americans use drugs on a regular basis. It might not be crack or fentanyl, but we use drugs like caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and sugar incessantly. We are a drug-based society, as all drugs have very real benefits and very real risks.
Whether you know it or not, you know someone who uses drugs.
The most common trajectory to any opioid (heroin, fentanyl, etc.) addiction and/or overdose starts with a prescription painkiller. Here in the mountains, we have a high rate of opioid prescriptions because people are prone to injuries related to outdoor recreation and occupations. We are all likely to be prescribed an opioid at some point, and having Narcan around, in the home or in the car, can save a life.
Then there’s the historic party culture of towns like Aspen and Carbondale. We have so many great opportunities for recreation, theater, dance, art, music, but with that often comes drugs and alcohol. Some of us party, paint and perform without illicit drugs, but many do not.
We absolutely have a drug problem here and if you’re lucky enough to not notice it, you are living a wonderful life! But EVERYONE should have Narcan in their emergency first aid kits. Whether it’s at a concert, a library, a park, or in your own home, overdoses can happen anywhere and it doesn’t hurt to have the antidote to America’s most common poison on hand.
And this isn’t a new problem. Garfield County had record-setting overdose deaths in 2006, 2009, 2016 and 2021. We see more drug use in times of greater economic and political uncertainty, so while we have finally seen declines in overdoses for the first time in 20 years (thanks to all that Narcan we’ve been handing out), we’re still far from the goal of zero overdose deaths.
We have a narrow understanding of drugs (that I’ll expand on next time!) but the evidence of addiction is becoming clearer all the time. Addiction doesn’t exist in isolation, but is a symptom of other underlying issues. Most people who try illicit drugs don’t become addicted, but with increasing mental health concerns more people are at risk.
But the solution isn’t necessarily abstinence from drugs and alcohol, though that can definitely help. We must look at the root source of these obsessive behaviors, namely trauma and other mental health issues. Abstinence can help — a lot — with addressing these issues, but just being sober isn’t always enough. And drugs and medications can often be part of the solution.
How do we heal trauma? Not through inhumane incarceration and mandated therapy, but through love, compassion and kindness, especially for ourselves.
We aren’t just in recovery from drugs and alcohol, or whatever other addictions we may have. We are in recovery from trauma, abuse, anxiety, depression, chaos, capitalism and the crushing weight of a cruel world.
Consider the adage of the healing forest that was first introduced to me by White Bison, a Native American recovery organization out of eastern Colorado: “If a single tree is removed from a sick forest, treated and replanted, it will become ill again because its environment remains toxic.”
This is why so many people attend rehab just to return to use once they’re back home.
It is tiresome and terrifying to watch someone go through the ups and downs of addiction, but compassion yields greater results than criticism. The more we push on people, the more we push them away, while the evidence shows that pulling them closer is generally more effective. Harm reduction does just that.
The real question isn’t how we, the individuals, recover from addiction, but how are we, as a society, going to recover from centuries of trauma?
To heal the individual, we have to heal the entire forest. We have to come together as a community and address all the ways our current society was set up to fail us, or we’re just going to be chasing the tail of addiction in circles forever.
Harm reduction is a part of everyone’s recovery journey in some way, because we can’t help people if they’re not alive. However you manage to stay alive today, your coping mechanisms are valid. And we are all capable of redemption.
Can we save the forest? Only if we come together from a place of love and compassion. We are all different, with different obsessions, perspectives and values, but we all share the same forest and we are all responsible for its healing.
We can reduce harm today through the simple step of carrying Narcan and looking out for each other, because no one else is coming to save us.
Learn more about harm reduction in the Valley and where to get Narcan
at www.highrockiesharmreduction.com or by emailing Mugsy at
mugsy@highrockiesharmreduction.com