Fentanyl is a scourge on society and, too often, a death sentence for those who overdose after consuming it unknowingly with other illegal drugs. That's widely understood by now. Certainly, in Colorado.

Fatal fentanyl overdoses in our state have increased by more than 800% in only four years, up from 102 in 2018. The spread of the synthetic opioid's use in Colorado has made it a leader among the states, sadly. Indeed, of the 1,799 overdose deaths in Colorado last year, over half involved fentanyl, according to state stats.

And yet, for all the headlines and hard data exposing the perils of the drug, it continues to kill — particularly our young. So, it was encouraging to read in The Gazette last week that our state's higher ed institutions are joining the fight. Campuses are working to inform students of the dangers of the opioid, and any such campaign to raise awareness is especially warranted given how many other drugs that make their way onto campus are laced with fentanyl.

As The Gazette reported, 10 colleges and universities launched the "You Can't Outsmart Fentanyl" education campaign last week, created by the nonprofit Blue Rising Community. The campaign will use a website, campus posters, social media posts and giveaways to inform students about fentanyl's dangers as well as how to recognize and respond to an overdose.

The schools will promote a checklist to prevent fentanyl overdoses on their campuses. The checklist includes informing students about fentanyl's risks; alerting students of nearby overdoses, and providing students with training and access to naloxone to reverse overdoses.

The Gazette report notes Blue Rising Community is also offering overdose response training to campus staff and students and encouraging campus security and local law enforcement to contribute to a mapping system to collect drug overdose data.

It's reassuring to see higher ed stand on the battle lines lines with so many other Colorado institutions and individuals in fighting this deadly plague. After all, our colleges and universities are key stakeholders in the future of our youth.

What's also encouraging is to see a group like Blue Rising taking the lead on the effort. Identified with Democratic Party candidates and causes, the group represents progressives who see the light on the dangers the drug culture creates for our young people. So, the organization hasn't been afraid to challenge the thinking among a lot of elected fellow Democrats who have been obsessed with drug decriminalization in the name of equity and other lofty buzzwords.

These wisely drug-wary progressives instead support policies reducing young people's exposure and access to fentanyl and other deadly, hard drugs — which Colorado's Legislature recklessly decriminalized in 2019 — as well as to legal retail marijuana.

Blue rising has worked at the Legislature to help repair the damage done by spiraling fentanyl availability and use. As the group notes on its website, it "saw that the nuances of the problem were being lost in the policy debate surrounding crime, opiates, and criminal justice reform."

Its website also declares: "Many of us are parents, and we have witnessed firsthand the damaging effects of unregulated, Big Marijuana and the price our youth and young adults have paid by being the ?rst state to legalize recreational marijuana without the proper safeguards in place."

Amen to that. We'll add that Colorado's dominant Democrats have been way too soft on legal pot as well as theoretically illegal fentanyl. So, it's all the more heartening to see some of them break ranks and talk common sense for the good of Colorado's kids.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

Photo credit: Colin Davis at Unsplash