The legislature’s sweeping attempt to confront Colorado’s worsening fentanyl crisis is slated for an early morning hearing in the House Appropriations Committee on Friday.

The full House could then tackle the measure for a floor debate later in the day.  

The bill increases criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of fentanyl, as well as sets up a comprehensive program to help individuals addicted to the deadly synthetic opioid.

It went through more than 13 hours of hearing in committee two weeks ago, when the testimony focused on the issue of simple possession. The debate over possession revolves around two interlocking issues: The first dwells on a 2019 law that made it a misdemeanor to possess up to 4 grams of many drugs, including fentanyl. The second deals with fentanyl’s unique nature. A potent synthetic opioid used legitimately in medicine, the substance is mixed illicitly into other drugs, such as meth and cocaine, and is primarily found in pills often made to look like legitimate oxycodone tablets. Because fentanyl is so potent at low doses, the pills are deadly.

Law enforcement groups, some mayors – Denver’s Michael Hancock, among them – and families whose loved ones have overdosed stand on one side of that debate, urging policymakers to lower the felony threshold for its possession to any amount. On the other side are health providers and addiction experts, who insist that legislators adopt a health-centric approach to confront Colorado’s opioid crisis.

The nation’s fentanyl problem has reached a crisis level since then. Between March 2020 and March 2021, more than 100,000 Americans fatally overdosed, the first time the country had surpassed that grim milestone in a 12-month period. Most of those deaths involved synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. An even higher number died between November 2020 and November 2021, with synthetics present in roughly two-thirds of those overdose cases.

Nearly 900 Coloradans fatally overdosed after ingesting fentanyl in 2021, a number that’s quadrupled since 2019. Though Colorado’s fatal overdose rate for synthetic drugs, of which fentanyl is the most prevalent, is below the national average, the state’s rate has grown faster than nearly any other state since 2018.

Once the bill clears the House Appropriations Committee, where it’s expected to pass, it would head to the full House for second reading debate. Friday’s focus is likely to mirror the discussion in the House Judiciary Committee – how to treat simple possession of the drug and its felony threshold.

Harm reduction advocates criticized the bill’s sponsor, House Speaker Alec Garnett, D-Denver, for an amendment that increased the penalties for fentanyl possession. The bill, as introduced, left the 2019 law on simple possession, keeping felony charges at 4 grams or more. An amendment that Garnet pushed, however, lowered the threshold for felony possession to 1 gram. 

Garnett has bemoaned the focus on simple possession, maintaining the measure offers a multipronged and comprehensive approach to tackling the crisis, notably the bill’s efforts to help people with addiction problems kick the habit and to give district attorneys and law enforcement better tools to put dealers behind bars. 

Amendments dealing with simple possession – whether through attempts to lower the felony threshold to zero or to restore it to the 2019 law level – and funding increases for its harm reduction programs are expected.