Fentanyl Accountability and Prevention Bill Moves To Governor's Desk

COLORADO — Colorado's bipartisan Fentanyl Accountability and Prevention bill, HB22-1326, passed the legislature Wednesday night and has moved onto Gov. Jared Polis' desk. The bill will expand funding for drug education and treatment programs across the state, but also crack down on anyone caught with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that doubles as both powerful prescription painkiller and illicit street drug.

"The bill makes the unlawful possession of any material, compound, mixture, or preparation that weighs more than 4 grams and contains any amount of fentanyl, carfentanal, or an analog thereof a level 4 drug felony," the bill reads.

Proponents say the bill will get drug dealers off the streets and reduce opioid deaths, which have skyrocketed in recent years, while critics say it doubles down on failed policies that haven't worked and leave too many behind bars.

"The bill makes it a felony to possess 1g of ANY drug so long as that +1g contains ANY amount of fentanyl," Rep. Steven Woodrow, D-Denver, who voted against the bill, tweeted. "It’s dangerous, but please don’t use that to felonize nearly all possession."

The bill, once signed into law, will make the possession of more than four grams of fentanyl a level four drug felony. It will also make the distribution, manufacturing or sale of fentanyl a level one drug felony for more than 50 grams, a level two drug felony from 4-50 grams and a level three drug felony under 4 grams.

"Healthier Colorado vehemently opposes any attempt to refelonize the simple possession of fentanyl. This is a public health crisis and must be addressed in a manner that adheres to evidence-based solutions, interventions and services," Healthier Colorado tweeted. "More than 20 years of research has demonstrated that incarceration is not an effective deterrent to drug use."

A level one drug felony, according to the Colorado legislature, could result in eight to 32 years of jail time, plus a fine of $5,000 to $1 million. A level two drug felony could result in four to eight years of jail time, plus a fine of $3,000 to $750,000. And a level three drug felony could result in two to four years of jail time, plus a fine of $2,000 to $500,000.

"We need to go after the dealers who are poisoning our communities and provide training and resources to better equip law enforcement to investigate fentanyl poisonings while increasing access to desperately needed treatment and life-saving harm reduction tools,” the bill's co-sponsor, Sen. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, said in a statement.

The bill comes during an "alarming increase" in the number of Coloradans dying from fentanyl, according to the Colorado Health Institute. In 2020, 1,477 Coloradans died of drug overdoses, the highest annual number ever recorded and a 38 percent increase from the year before. Opioid deaths involving fentanyl made up 68 percent of drug-related deaths in the state the same year.

For the 2022-23 fiscal year, the bill will move $20 million from the behavioral and mental health cash fund to the opiate antagonist bulk purchase fund. It will also send $300,000 to the department of public health and environment for the "purchase and distribution of non-laboratory synthetic opiate detection tests to eligible entities."

Other components of the bill will require the department of public health and environment to develop a fentanyl prevention and education campaign and move $6 million from the behavioral and mental health cash fund to the harm reduction grant program. As well, the bill will require jails that receive funding through jail-based behavioral health services programs to allow for medical treatment and withdrawal management care, funding such programs with $3 million from the behavioral and mental health cash fund.

The governor's office released a statement in response to the passage of the bill praising the legislature's bipartisan effort.

"Making major bipartisan progress on saving lives and improving public safety is a great way for a historic session of the General Assembly focused on saving people money to wrap up," the governor's office said in its statement. "The legislature has now acted in a bipartisan and comprehensive manner to reduce fentanyl deaths and get dealers off the streets and fentanyl out of our communities."