University of Colorado students rattled by apparent drug contamination scare
Coming off a troubling weekend when six young men got ill at a fraternity party, there's renewed talk about the dangers of drug contamination at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Students are thinking about what's happening at parties they attend and what's being shared after consuming apparently tainted cocaine Saturday night after doing apparently tainted cocaine.
"You're not going to escape it. there's going to be partying especially at a school like Boulder, the big Greek scene," said Alex Beecher, a sophomore who's in a fraternity.
"I think that there's a lot of people that go to parties looking for things," freshman sorority member Julia Holmes said.
The problem comes when they find more trouble than they're looking for.
Boulder police say they're following leads in the case. They're trying to find the source of the apparently tainted cocaine. Alcohol was also being consumed when the six got ill. One was so seriously sickened Narcan given to people for opioid overdoses was used. His initial grave condition improved and he was last in stable condition along with the others.
"Student safety is our top priority, and CU Boulder regularly communicates about harm reduction and alcohol and drug education with students," the university said in a statement in which the university called the news, "devastating to the University of Colorado Boulder campus community."
The school pointed out there has been trouble in the past for the Kappa Sigma fraternity. Is has not been a recognized Greek chapter at CU Boulder for almost twenty years. Kappa Sigma was expelled from an interfraternity council in 2015 following violations involving safety and welfare concerns.
The national fraternity has now suspended the operations of the Boulder chapter pending the outcome of the investigation.
The school and organizations like End Overdose try to get the word out to students about dangers.
They distribute free testing kits to detect drugs like fentanyl and share Narcan for potential overdoses.
"I definitely think college is definitely a learning experience. People are going to make stupid decisions, whatever they do," said freshman Madeleine Prince. As much as word gets out, there's always a need for more.
"Everybody parties," said sophomore Patrick O'Rourke. "It would be nice to have a little bit more education on what could go wrong and all of those things"