“While we’re making some progress on the opioid front, we’re still losing ground on the methamphetamine front,” Dunn said.

In 2017, fatal meth overdoses exceeded heroin for the first time in a decade, according to data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. All opioid overdose deaths combined, including fentanyl, heroin and prescription pills, still outnumber meth.

Some heroin users are actually switching to meth, “because they don’t think that you can overdose on stimulants, and you can absolutely overdose on stimulants,” said Lisa Raville, the executive director of the Harm Reduction Action Center, which is Denver’s needle exchange program.

Meth can be either injected or smoked. Raville said half of the people she sees use meth and half use heroin. Many, she added, use both. Meth overdoses “present a little different, more as a heart attack, stroke or seizure.”

Raville wants to get those who come through the needle exchange better information about meth’s risks. She noted that stimulant overdoses are up in Denver and the state.

Denver’s homelessness issues could also partly account for the city’s surge in meth possession arrests.

“When you’re unhoused, you’re very public and you’re always trespassing, and so obviously the first thing that’s probably going to happen is you’re going to come into contact with law enforcement,” she said. “They’re going to pat you down and you’re going to have some sort of possession.

Alongside the jump in possession arrests, law enforcement has found an increase in other types of crime, such as theft of items from cars. Hunter Hobbs said meth keeps you up and moving, and when he was using, petty crime was a part of the lifestyle.

“I know for myself,” Hobbs said. “I was just trying to take anything that wasn’t bolted down, to try to sell to somebody to support my habit.”

Hobbs was eventually arrested, and incarceration led to him to realize that he needed to get sober. Those experiences gave him an inside look at many of the problems that ail Denver.

“Drug use, crime, homelessness, mental health, it’s all kind of intertwined,” he said.

He said meth’s abundance and cheap price tag will make addressing any related issues more difficult.