DENVER, Colo. — Advocates are pushing for increased penalties for fentanyl-related crimes as Advance Colorado prepares to turn in anti-fentanyl ballot measure, Initiative #85, Thursday morning.
Initiative #85 would be put on the ballot for next year’s election. Advance Colorado said it has gathered over 200,000 signatures for the measure.
A press conference is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Thursday outside of the Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center to announce the measure, just a few days after the biggest fentanyl bust in Colorado, and one of the largest in the country.
District Attorney for the 23rd Judicial District George Brauchler supports the measure, saying it is a "citizen driven effort to toughen our laws when it comes to maybe the most dangerous poison I’ve seen in three decades, and that’s fentanyl.”
In 2019, if someone possessed less than four grams of drugs — including fentanyl — state law deemed it a misdemeanor, according to Brauchler.
“Two milligrams or so is a lethal dose of fentanyl. And so what they, in essence, said was you could possess an amount that would kill 2000 people of fentanyl, and you only have to face a misdemeanor after that time,” Brauchler explained. “From about 2020 to 2023, Colorado planted in the ground over 3500 innocent people who died to fentanyl and opioid related overdoses.”
He said in 2022, the law changed, so possessing one gram or less of fentanyl was a misdemeanor.
“What this effort is an attempt to do is to say, all right, 'legislature, you’ve now had six years to try to fix this problem. You can’t do it. You won’t do it.' Now the state of Colorado, the citizens have said, 'We want to do it,'" Brauchler said.
Coloradans like Andrea Thomas lost her daughter to fentanyl poisoning in 2018.
"A measure like this addresses a lot of pieces. We see it as an accountability law, and people often think that we just want to lock everybody up, right? That's not the case at all. We want to save lives. We want to warn people," she said. "If there is no accountability for those distributing these deadly poisons, then we fall short no repercussion for people that are killing others."
"If there is no accountability for those distributing these deadly poisons, then we fall short. No repercussion for people that are killing others," she added.
But not everyone believes this is the best way to solve the issue.
Deputy Director at the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, Kyle Giddings, said this measure would be a “step backwards.”
“To say that is the most regressive ballot initiative on the ballots next year would be an understatement. I would say it's the most regressive in this state's history related to criminal justice issues,” Giddings said.
The mandatory minimums and higher charges under this measure are detrimental, according to Giddings, who said it eliminates provisions that protect people who are struggling with addiction and trying to get help.
“Right now, in the law... you have to knowingly possess fentanyl. This ballot initiative will eliminate that,” Giddings said. "If you are a kid, or if you're some young adult here in Denver, that is like just enjoying the some drugs and you don't know that your drugs have fentanyl in it. If you get caught up in that, you will be charged at a much higher level and face mandatory minimums."
However, Advance Colorado said that is incorrect. The measure has no mandatory minimums for users, only for dealers. Only a Level One drug felony carries a mandatory minimum, and users are not charged with that, Advance Colorado said.
Giddings pointed to the recent fentanyl bust out of Douglas County as part of his argument.
“It makes it to where a teen at a party with a single pill is the equivalent of a cartel member with 1.7 million pills,” Giddings said. “This is just going to criminalize every day drug users that are in our communities, and it's going to criminalize and create huge obstacles for people to overcome their addiction and find a new path forward in their lives by slapping them with felony convictions and making them getting their jobs houses and building a life incredibly difficult.”
Giddings thinks Initiative #85 will balloon the prison population and force the state to defund things like higher education, Medicare and transportation, so it can put that money into building new prisons.
However after publication, Advance Colorado reached out to Denver7 to refute Giddings' claims.
Advance Colorado said a cartel member selling 1.7 million pills would be charged with a Level One drug felony, which is a mandatory sentence of 8-32 years in prison. A person possessing a pill with fentanyl could be charged with a Level 4 treatment-mandated drug felony, according to Advance Colorado. If that person goes to rehab, the charge is lowered to a misdemeanor.
Teenagers are charged in juvenile court under a different set of standards. Delinquency proceedings are used against them, not mandatory jail time in adult prisons, Advance Colorado countered.
- Check out the text for Initiative #85 in the document below:
