In this episode of West Obsessed, High Country News editors Brian Calvert, Kate Schimel and Paige Blankenbuehler discuss the nearly year-long investigation of a drug epidemic in the rural West. In tiny Craig, in northwest Colorado, a private practice spurred a complicated drug crisis that continues to outpace the available resources for addicts, the health care community and law enforcement.

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West Obsessed: How pain pills spread in one Colorado town

by Kate Schimel, High Country News
February 23, 2017

<h1>West Obsessed: How pain pills spread in one Colorado town</h1> <p class="byline">by Kate Schimel, High Country News <br />February 23, 2017</p> <p><span>In this episode of West Obsessed, <em>High Country News </em>editors Brian Calvert, Kate Schimel and Paige Blankenbuehler discuss the nearly year-long investigation of a drug epidemic in the rural West. In tiny Craig, in northwest Colorado, a private practice spurred a complicated drug crisis that continues to outpace the available resources for addicts, the health care community and law enforcement.</span></p> <figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/WestObsessed-14-A-complicated-rural-drug-environment.mp3"></audio></figure> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.hcn.org/articles/west-obsessed-a-perfect-storm-drug-epidemic-in-a-rural-colorado-town/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.hcn.org&quot;&gt;High Country News&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cropped-HCN_Logo-Monogram_White_Sq-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.hcn.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=98170&amp;amp;ga4=G-0NS3WVPPTN&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.hcn.org/articles/west-obsessed-a-perfect-storm-drug-epidemic-in-a-rural-colorado-town/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hcn.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

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