In a rare bipartisan press conference in the 2022 session, Gov. Jared Polis, legislators, families who have lost loved ones and district attorneys on Thursday announced a comprehensive bill to confront the state’s burgeoning fentanyl crisis, arguing its passage would make streets and homes safer.

The bill will focus on both heightened penalties for fentanyl distribution – but not possession – and more resources for a state education campaign and treatment for those addicted to the compound drugs that now often contain fentanyl.

The fentanyl legislation comes amid heightened attention to the drug’s increasingly deadly impact in Colorado. Fatal overdoses involving the drug have skyrocketed since 2015, the product of shifting economics and priorities within the illicit drug trade and accelerated by the pandemic. More than 800 Coloradans died after ingesting fentanyl in 2021, according to state data. That represents a roughly 50% increase from 2020 and more than triple the number of deaths from 2019.

The legislation will help the state address what Speaker of the House Alec Garnett, D-Denver, and others call a “deadly poison,” noting fentanyl is now present in every street drug – from heroin to meth to oxycodone and even black-market marijuana.

Overdoses and poisonings are devastating communities, said Garnett, a House cosponsor of the bill, along with Rep. Mike Lynch, R-Wellington.

“Fentanyl is unlike any drug and we have to treat it differently,” he said. “Colorado will be safer if this bill is signed into law.”

The bill isn’t a silver bullet, according to Polis and the bill’s sponsors. But they argued it would go a long way to address the “scourge” of fentanyl.

The legislation will help law enforcement and district attorneys get the distributors off the streets, as well as create a path forward for those addicted to those compound drugs, Polis said.

“Every community is battling the fentanyl crisis and they need our help,” added Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley. “We will work not as Republicans and Democrats but as concerned Coloradans.”

“Sheriffs need our help and we’re going to get it to them,” he said. 

Sen. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, said the bill gives law enforcement the tools to hold those who distribute the deadly drug accountable, but it also approaches the problem with empathy and understanding. She noted the bill’s public awareness campaign provision that she said will educate Coloradans on just what’s at stake.

“We need to do our part to bring attention to the dangers from taking just one pill. You could lose your life,” she said.

The bill isn’t an easy one, said Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, who also noted that addicts don’t ask first what’s in a pill before getting their fix. Dealers are knowingly bringing in fentanyl, mixed with other drugs, and they should face stiffer consequences, she said.

Addicts, on the other hand, deserve a road to recovery, which is provided in the bill, she said.

“Is everyone happy” with the bill? she asked. “No.”

But, she added, the solutions offered by the bill will work.

The state cannot go back to the failed policies of the past nor resurrect the war on drugs, but, at the same time, the state cannot turn a blind eye to drug dealers and cartels, either, eh said.

“We have to provide the resources needed to crack down on criminals,” she said, adding the same approach applies to those who need treatment.

District attorneys from several jurisdictions also joined in to lend support.

District Attorney Brian Mason of Adams County, where five people allegedly died on Feb. 21 after taking fentanyl-laced cocaine, said it is the largest such incidence in the country. He said if someone in his district is distributing fentanyl that results in death, he can’t prosecute that person for those deaths because state law doesn’t allow that kind of charge.

This bill will allow him to do that, he said.

“No bill is perfect, and we have a lots of work to do. But this will help get fentanyl off the streets and get dealers of this poison into prison, which is where they belong,” he said.

Denver District Attorney Beth McCann attended the news conference but did not speak. She said in a statement afterward that her office is seeing “an alarming increase” in fentanyl cases. She said her office filed 87 cases in 2019 and by 2021 was up to 340 cases. “The increased penalties for dealers and the distribution-resulting-in death provisions of this bill will empower state prosecutors with statutory tools similar to that of our federal colleagues so that we have stronger laws to help us address this scourge by holding dealers to higher criminal standards,” McCann said.

McCann added that fentanyl is also causing an increase in other crimes throughout Denver and the state. “The goal is to hold those who peddle this poison accountable while also ensuring those who are overdosing can get help without fear of repercussion,” she explained, adding that the bill “is a nice blend of increased criminal tools and funding for education, treatment, and provision of Narcan and fentanyl test strips. Fentanyl use presents multifaceted issues and needs to be addressed on many levels. This bill is a great step forward in this fight.”