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9 News Denver: CU Boulder Students Overdose at Fraternity House

9News Denver – 5 men sickened by extreme alcohol consumption at Boulder fraternity

Originally Published: 11:46 AM MST December 8, 2024
View on the 9 News Website

Steve Carleton, addiction specialist, University of Denver professor and chief clinical officer at Porch Light Health, discusses an incident in Boulder where five men were sickened following extreme alcohol consumption with 9 News.

Article Summary

BOULDER, Colo. — Boulder Police are investigating after five men consumed extreme amounts of alcohol and some took drugs, which led them to become violently ill at Kappa Sigma fraternity on Saturday night.

Initial reports from Boulder Police said six men had overdosed during a party on a batch of cocaine that was possibly laced with another drug. On Tuesday, police said they believe at least five men consumed extreme amounts of alcohol and some took drugs. Those drugs do not appear to have been tainted with fentanyl, police said.

Officers responded between 10 and 10:30 p.m. to the hospital and to the fraternity house at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave. Police spokesperson Dionne Waugh said when officers arrived, they found people visibly sick and throwing up. Waugh said naloxone was administered.

The University of Colorado Boulder initially reported that the young men taken to the hospital were students partying off campus at the expelled fraternity house.

Boulder Police said on Tuesday that one man’s condition was considered grave but has since improved. All the students involved are expected to survive.

Detectives seized cocaine found at the scene and it’s being tested. Boulder Police also said they are investigating whether the actions at the party were related to the fraternity.

No matter what it was, it drives home an important point, according to Steve Carleton, an addiction specialist, University of Denver professor and chief clinical officer at Porch Light Health. The organization works with people struggling with addiction to illicit drugs and alcohol.

He said it’s also possible that such a situation could be an accident with someone inadvertently mixing the cocaine in the same place where other drugs were present.

In either case, it can be dangerous or even deadly.

“I think they’re extraordinarily lucky they didn’t die,” Carleton said. 

Read More on the 9 News Website.

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