Published: 08/19/2026 | Author: Courtney Myers

Federal agents have seized 3.2 million fentanyl pills across the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division so far this year, including 500,000 pills in a single Western Slope operation in May. For people using fentanyl in Colorado, or supporting someone who is, the supply picture has not eased the way the national numbers suggest.

Eric Neal, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division, described the scale in an interview with KJCT in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Division covers Colorado along with neighboring states, so the pill total is regional rather than state-specific. Neal also said Colorado overdose deaths are up 14 percent while national deaths fall. The DEA did not specify the time period or data source for that figure.

What the State and City Data Show

Preliminary data from the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment recorded 346 fatal fentanyl overdoses in the city in 2025, up from 277 the year before. This is the second-highest fentanyl death count of the decade, behind only 2023. Overall drug overdose deaths in Denver rose from 483 to 517, an increase of more than 7 percent.

Those figures are provisional. The health department noted 87 cases from late 2025 still awaiting a cause and manner of death, and later preliminary counts from the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner put the city’s 2025 total at 563. That would leave Denver just short of the 598 deaths recorded in 2023, its deadliest year. Methamphetamine deaths in the city rose as well, from 272 to 281.

Why the Supply Has Not Eased

Colorado-specific seizure data points in the same direction. Federal agents seized 76 percent more fentanyl pills in Colorado in 2025 than the year before, a volume amounting to more than 14 percent of all fentanyl pills seized nationwide. Methamphetamine seizures in the state rose 16 percent.

Methamphetamine is the next most-seized drug after fentanyl in the region, with 3,000 pounds recovered across the Division last year. DEA officials have pointed to the Interstate 25 corridor as a route for moving product north into the Rocky Mountain region, and investigations typically start with a seller holding 1,000 to 5,000 pills and work upward.

The national decline over this period has been attributed largely to a disruption in the illicit fentanyl supply linked to restrictions on precursor chemicals. Researchers who documented that shift have cautioned it may be temporary. Where supply stayed available, the improvement did not arrive.

Understanding Fentanyl and Overdose Risk

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid substantially more potent than heroin. Neal said an amount that fits on the tip of a pencil, roughly two milligrams, can be lethal.

It appears in counterfeit pills pressed to resemble prescription medication and is mixed into powders sold as other substances, which is why many people who die from it did not know they had taken it. Denver’s medical examiner has reported fentanyl arriving less often as pills and more often as powder, a form easier to mistake for something else. Rising methamphetamine deaths alongside fentanyl point to a polysubstance supply.

Harm Reduction and Treatment

Naloxone is available in Colorado without a prescription and free through many public health programs. Denver’s health department has placed naloxone and fentanyl test strips in libraries and other community locations and has purchased equipment for on-site drug checking. Naloxone reverses opioid overdose but does not reverse stimulant toxicity.

Fentanyl test strips let a person check a substance before using it. Given how often fentanyl turns up in powders sold as something else, that check has real value, and carrying naloxone matters whether or not you use opioids yourself.

Three medications are currently FDA-approved for opioid use disorder. Methadone is dispensed through licensed opioid treatment programs. Buprenorphine is available from certified prescribers, including some emergency departments that will start it the same day. Naltrexone blocks opioid effects but requires full withdrawal first.

Harm reduction workers in Denver have raised a concern about Colorado’s 2022 law making possession of larger fentanyl quantities a felony, saying it may discourage people from calling 911 during an overdose. Colorado has a medical amnesty law intended to protect people who call for help.

Finding Help for Opioid Addiction in Colorado

Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings run across Colorado, including in Grand Junction, Denver, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, with in-person and virtual options. NA is a peer support program in which members work a set of steps with a sponsor, drawing on shared experience with drug addiction. Narcotics.com is not affiliated with Narcotics Anonymous World Services and lists meetings independently.

Practical next steps:

• Search NA meetings in Colorado by city, day, time and meeting format
• Request free naloxone through a Colorado public health program, or pick it up at a pharmacy without a prescription
• Ask any treatment provider whether they offer medication for opioid use disorder on site
• Call SAMHSA’s national helpline at 1-800-662-4357, free and confidential, 24 hours a day