Substance Use Advisory Group (SUAG)

The Boulder County Substance Use Advisory Group is a group of individuals and organizations dedicated to responding to the opioid epidemic and other substance abuse.

Vision: Boulder County is a thriving and safe community of individuals with positive health outcomes.

Mission: Boulder County Substance Use Advisory Group engages in shared leadership and collective action to advance a comprehensive response to opioid and other drug use and the harmful impacts on the community by prioritizing and removing barriers to proven prevention, treatment, and harm reduction strategies, mobilizing existing resources, and encouraging informed and healthy community attitudes.

Background

Background: Boulder County Substance Use Advisory Group

The Substance Use Advisory Group is specifically working toward preventing fatal overdoses, destigmatizing substance use disorders (SUDs), promoting harm reduction, and supporting affected individuals in treatment and recovery.

Learn More

Framework

Framework for the Boulder County Substance Use Advisory Group

The Substance Use Advisory Group is an inclusive group of individuals, organizations, and community members dedicated to preventing and responding to the opioid issue in Boulder County. Addressing opioids requires significant collaboration and social change across a broad cross-section of local stakeholders. The Substance Use Advisory Group is moving toward a collective impact approach, in which participants agree on a common agenda, engage in continuous communication, plan collaboratively, and work toward creating a shared measurement system.

Current Areas of Focus

The Substance Use Advisory Group has identified several focus areas to address the opioid crisis in Boulder County.

The areas of focus include:

Primary Prevention
Public Awareness
Provider Education
Community Involvement
Harm Reduction
Business Sector
Criminal Justice Initiatives
Treatment Access
Recovery Support
Community Members with Lived Experience
Youth, student, and family education and prevention
Criminal Justice Initiatives (Boulder County Drug Task Force, Boulder County District Attorney’s Office, and Boulder County Jail)

Boulder County Public Health serves as the backbone organization and provides dedicated staff to coordinate the initiative.

Partners

Local Partners Leading Focus Areas

The Substance Use Advisory Group is an inclusive group of individuals, organizations, and community members dedicated to preventing and responding to the opioid issue in Boulder County. Meetings are open to anyone to attend and participate, and members continuously contribute to implementing strategies across various areas of focus.

Partners have been identified in:

Prevention
Non-profit
Governmental agencies
Treatment and recovery
Law enforcement and criminal justice
Clinical and pharmacy professionals
Community organizations and community partners

A key focus is to elevate the voices of individuals directly affected, including those with family members affected, individuals in recovery, individuals in treatment, chronic pain patients, and individuals currently using substances. The aim is to include these voices in the development of strategies.

The Substance Use Advisory Group is continuing to work to identify strategies to strengthen systems and policies to meet its goals.

Substance Use Advisory Group Partners

Prevention

Boulder County Area Agency on Aging
Boulder County Community Services
Boulder County District Attorney
Boulder County Public Health
Boulder County Resource Conservation
Boulder Valley School District
Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention
Communities that Care
El Centro Amistad
Healthy Futures Coalition
Rocky Mountain Equality
Vrain Valley Schools
University of Colorado Boulder

Clinical Partners

American Medical Response (AMR)
Boulder Community Health
Boulder County Medical Society
Clinica Family Health
Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention
Salud Family Health Centers
University of Colorado Boulder

Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

Boulder County Adult Integrated Treatment Court
Boulder County Community Services
Boulder County Coroner
Boulder County District Attorney
Boulder County Drug Task Force
Boulder County Jail
Boulder County Sheriff
City of Longmont Public Safety
Colorado Probation – 20th Judicial District
Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
University of Colorado Police

Alignment with Statewide Partners

Boulder County Opioid Advisory Group partners closely with state partners, including:

Colorado Consortium for Prescription Abuse and Prevention (the Consortium)
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Office of Behavioral Health
Colorado Substance Abuse Trend and Response Task Force (Colorado Attorney General’s Office)

Policy

Opioid Policy

Bill Limits Initial Opioid Prescription to 7 Days and Requires Checking Database

Summary of Opioid Prescribing Bill for Physicians

On May 21, 2018, Colorado joined many other states by passing Senate Bill 18-022 to address opioid prescribing. The bill requires prescribers (e.g., physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses with prescribing authority, podiatrists, optometrists, dentists, and veterinarians) to limit the initial prescription of an opioid to no more than a seven-day supply. For outpatient care, after prescribing the first opioid prescription, the prescriber is required to check the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) database before prescribing additional opioids. The prescriber may exercise discretion to prescribe the second additional 7-day opioid supply.

The law does not apply to patients who:

Have a history of chronic pain that, in the judgment of the physician, will likely last more than 90 days
Have cancer-related pain
Receive hospice or palliative care
Have undergone a surgical procedure with pain expected to last more than 14 days due to the nature of the procedure
Received an opioid narcotic prescription from the same prescribing physician within the past 12 months

Progress

Substance Use Advisory Group Progress

Resources

NACo 2018 Award Winner

The Boulder County Substance Use Advisory Group is a winner of the National Association of Counties Achievement Award for 2018.

National Association of Counties Achievement Award 2018