'Life over abstinence': Colorado legislators again pursue supervised drug use centers
When Maggie Seldeen’s mother died from a heroin overdose, no one called 911.
At only 15 years old, overdoses were almost commonplace in Seldeen’s world, surrounded by addiction, drug dealing and domestic violence in the Roaring Fork Valley. Seldeen, an injection drug user herself at the time, did not know about naloxone, or Narcan, which reverses an opioid overdose. She did not know there was anything that could be done to save her mother’s life.
For the last three years, Seldeen has dedicated her life to informing others about overdose prevention. With her organization, High Rockies Harm Reduction, Seldeen travels around rural Colorado distributing Narcan, fentanyl test strips and clean syringes. She teaches everyone from drug users to high school students to jail staff about overdoses, disease prevention and how to care for people who use drugs.
“This work I do, I've been touched by it in every way,” Seldeen said. “We're so often volunteering and serving our friends and our family and our neighbors because we want to keep them alive. … People just need to know that this exists.”