The Denver Post is publishing a four-part series examining why alcohol-related deaths are so common in Colorado and what could be done to save more lives. Many people remain unaware of the full ris…
Andrea Carter, left, and her daughter Ashley, 14, comfort each other at Golden Gate Canyon State Park near Black Hawk on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023. The family spread the ashes of Matt Carter — Andrea’s husband and Ashley’s father — near the site. He died of liver failure at age 39 in 2018 after battling alcohol addiction.
The Denver Post is publishing a four-part series this week examining why Colorado consistently ranks among the worst for alcohol-related deaths. The state hasn’t raised alcohol taxes or done anything to restrict access — steps that can reduce deaths. And while treatment is available in Colorado, information about how to access it hasn’t always reached families searching for help.
“Tax hikes will unfairly raise the cost on responsible consumers and harm hospitality businesses still trying to rebound from the pandemic amid a host of new challenges, including inflation and staff shortages,” Berger said in a statement.
“I think almost everyone recognizes that severe alcoholism is a problem, that person who’s falling down on the street,” but most people who drink aren’t aware they could be at risk, he said. . Legislators limited the amount of high-potency cannabis products an individual can purchase each day and required a more extensive relationship before a physician can sign off on a medical marijuana card.: reducing the density of businesses selling alcohol, raising alcohol taxes, limiting the hours when alcohol can be sold and increasing liability for selling alcohol to someone who’s underage or already intoxicated.
“Gov. Polis believes in personal responsibility,” Cahill said. “The state continues to invest in substance-use disorder treatment and alcohol risk education resources, and, ultimately, legal adults have the right to safely and responsibly access alcohol as long as they don’t risk public safety.” “We’ve allowed to creep into every segment of our society,” she said. “I think in Colorado, we’ve been irresponsible.”Colorado has recorded higher-than-average rates of alcohol-related deaths than the country as a whole since at least 2009, and had the sixth-highest rate in 2021, according to an analysis by KFF, the health policy research organization formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Everyone thought was COVID and the pandemic, and we thought it would go back down,” said Joseph Schacht, a clinical psychologist who studies alcohol at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus. The forced isolation of the first months of the pandemic didn’t help his mental state, Marberry said, and he was discouraged when a rehab facility turned him away in May 2020, saying he was too sick to manage. He stopped drinking for a few months before his death later that year to try to get on the liver transplant list, but it was too late to undo the damage, she said.
From the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, average alcohol consumption was trending down in Colorado, but that reversed for unclear reasons. By 2021, the average Coloradan was drinking about 25% more than in 1999. In the same period, consumption increased about 16% nationwide and 15% in the Western region.
On average, mortality starts to rise significantly when men have about three drinks per day and when women have about two drinks per day,. People who drank less, or only had alcohol occasionally, didn’t see a significant rise or decline in overall mortality, though the risk of specific diseases rises at lower levels.
While many will still choose to drink, people need accurate information about risk so they can make decisions, as they do when considering whether to try a dangerous sport, Schacht said.according to a 2021 report from the state health department
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Colorado lawmakers target another $5 million for Denver Health amid fears of hospital’s “death spiral”Seth Klamann is a statehouse reporter at the Denver Post, covering policy, state government and the legislature. He previously worked for the Gazette, the Casper Star-Tribune and the Omaha World-Herald. He's a graduate of the University of Missouri and a proud Kansas City native.
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