Suicide continues to be an increasing public health problem in Colorado, nationally, and globally. According to current literature, both acute intoxication and chronic substance use can contribute to suicidal behavior and alcohol and drug abuse have been identified as one of the most common risk factors for suicidal behavior. Consequently, individuals who suffer from alcohol dependency are ten times more likely to die by suicide and those who inject...

This profile summarizes controlled substance prescriptions that Colorado residents received from 2014-2016, prescribing practices and patient behaviors, population-level health care encounters and deaths related to opioid overdose among Colorado residents. This information is from several sources: The Colorado Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), emergency department visit and hospital discharge databases and death certificates.

"Tarah Carson has hidden the secret for years. No one--not her mother, her friends at Bluford High, or even her boyfriend, Cooper Hodden--knows what her uncle did to her years ago. Tarah hoped to keep it that way. But an upcoming reunion is forcing Tarah's past into the present."--Back cover.