DENVER — For two years, the number of overdose deaths in Colorado surged, but those number of deaths leveled off in 2022.
However, with nearly 1,800 Coloradans dying some concert venues are now helping educate people on how to use Naloxone, the drug that helps reverse an overdose.
Mission Ballroom, Bluebird Theater and Fiddler's Green are just a few of the concert venues operated by AEG Presents Rocky Mountain that will be providing education surrounding overdose prevention.
"We were looking in ways to just educate the public on the current Fentanyl crisis that's going on," Kevin Anderson, the general manager with AEG Presents Rocky Mountain, said.
Part of the partnership includes posting signs and posters inside of different venues. They're posted at the bar, in bathrooms and near entrances.
"We think the clientele that kind of comes in are our fans, when they come in, these are people that that may party, they may use drugs, and these things are kind of in the scene, as they say, and we think the more we can do to get the information out there educate, educate our fans and patrons, the better off they'll be," Anderson said.
The campaign also includes Naloxone kits that will eventually be inside every single AEG venue, right alongside AED machines.
"If somebody were to have an overdose, we're prepared," Anderson said.
AEG employees working behind the bar at venues and those working on site on event nights have also trained on how to use Naloxone.
"For a lot of us, it's kind of a new thing. So really happy to get involved, I think everybody highly supports this, we all want to, you know, to try to save lives and get the information out there to our fans and keep people safe," Anderson said.
The director for the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse at the Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Jose Esquibel, is also a part of this effort. His main goal is also to teach more people what Naloxone is and how it works.
"This drug Naloxone, especially as a nasal form of Narcan is not going to hurt people. And it's so easy to use to put into the nose and squirt one over here and see what happens. Help keep a personal live call 911. We want to encourage people to actually carry it themselves," Esquibel said.
So if an overdose were ever to happen at a venue like Mission Ballroom, or an other AEG venue, the tools are there to save a life.
