Tag: Opioid
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Colorado gets $18 million in opioid settlement money
Colorado will receive $18 million in opioid settlement money, Attorney General Phil Weiser announced Thursday. Nineteen regions in Colorado will split the $18 million, while Denver will get $4.7 million. Denver plans to use the money in three areas: Prevention, treatment and infrastructure, according to a Thursday news release from the Denver Department of Public…
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Garnett’s gambit: House speaker fights for legacy-defining fentanyl bill in final year as legislator
When House Speaker Alec Garnett sat down with Colorado Politics in January to reflect on his last year in office, he said he always prefers taking on “one tough one than a bunch of consensus-driven ideas.” “I always tell Emily that I’m going to focus on one big thing,” said Garnett, one of the youngest to…
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Felony for expungement: Arapahoe sheriff offers compromise on fentanyl bill
Law enforcement advocates are pursuing a compromise to make possession of any amount of fentanyl a felony but allow for the expungement of the criminal record upon completion of certain programs, such as drug treatment or diversion. Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown told Colorado Politics that offer was “met with resistance” when he and others…
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Colorado House committee advances bill that lowers felony threshold for fentanyl possession
A panel of Colorado legislators advanced a bill Wednesday that increases criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of fentanyl, a middle-of-the-road approach between factions who want harsher penalties and those who decry going back to the tough-on-crime strategy of the past. The House Judiciary Committee advanced House Bill 1326, the legislature’s sweeping attempt to address…
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Advocates diametrically disagree on imprisonment’s role in response to fentanyl crisis
Fighting through tears, Jessica Chavez recounted before a panel of Colorado lawmakers how her daughter, Yesenia, fatally overdosed in July after taking a fentanyl pill she thought was Percocet. Before her death, Yesi, as her friends called her, had texted her family’s pastor, Chavez told lawmakers. The 21-year-old told him that she wanted “to do…
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Law enforcement groups, harm reduction advocates clash over fentanyl possession
A coalition of law enforcement organizations on Thursday criticized a sweeping approach to the fentanyl crisis in Colorado, saying it doesn’t do enough to crack down on those who possess the deadly drug. But harm reduction and addiction experts have taken the opposite position, warning that proposed changes to the state’s drug code would have…