A recent survey released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration suggests that Colorado is using drugs and alcohol at a high rate. According to the Denver Post, Americans aged 12 and older were surveyed about their use of four types of drugs: alcohol, opioids, marijuana and cocaine. Colorado was one of few states to rank highly in all four categories.
Organizers of the study argue that high marijuana use in Colorado is due to recent legalization. Other states where it is legal such as Washington, Oregon and Alaska also showed heavy marijuana use.
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However, Colorado also showed high levels of cocaine and opioid abuse. Cocaine appears to be a popular drug in several other western states too, such as New Mexico, Arizona and California. Surveyors said this is due to their proximity of the Mexican border.
Colorado showed high levels of opioid abuse as well, but New England showed even higher rates of use, often without a proper prescription and in most cases without a medical condition requiring pain relief.
To read more about the survey or for a breakdown on the pattern of substance abuse across the country, check out the full article.
Collegian Green Report Blogger Capelli D’Angelo can be reached online at blogs@collegian.com.
Dean Teagan • May 30, 2016 at 11:10 am
Surveying adults is one thing …but the CDE and CDPHE, in collaboration with a myriad of special interest lobby groups such as CEI, Youth Matter, One Colorado etc., are pushing very intrusive and controversial surveys into our middle and high schools, often without full disclosure and hiding behind rather Orwellian sounding names such as “Climate” survey or “Healthy Kids” Survey, which appear designed to trick parents into thinking the material is safe. But, here’s a link to the so called Healthy Kids Survey https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/hkcs/contact containing intrusive, “leading” questions about self-harm and special interest topics such as whether kids identify as transgender etc. Leo Kattari is the CDPHE’s Coordinator, and obviously has an enormous conflict of interest , http://frontporchstapleton.com/article/gender-complicated/