How big is their role?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, opioids (painkillers that include anything from Vicodin to OxyContin to heroin) were involved in some way in 33,091 deaths in 2015. The nation, in short, is in the grip of an epidemic; one that has had a devastating effect on rural communities more than any other, and that is often considered instigated by the rampant use of prescription drugs.

In Colorado, 2nd in the nation for prescription drug abuse, the attorney general has finally gotten wise to the need to study just how and why the abuse of prescription drugs may have begun and why it has prolonged — and she’s looking, at least partially, in the direction of pharmaceutical companies that make and market prescription pain meds.

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman is joining a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general across the country that is investigating whether, and possibly how, drug manufacturers broke any laws in marketing opioids — and any connection their work may have to the painkiller and heroin epidemic in Colorado and nationally.

The group, which involves a majority of state attorneys general, is not releasing the specifics of the inquiry but says it will look into how manufacturers may have been responsible for creating or prolonging the epidemic.

The officials plan to “determine the appropriate course of action to collectively address the opioid crisis,” Coffman’s office said in a news release Thursday.

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