New Opioid Addiction Laws Slip In Priority In Colorado

DENVER, CO – By John Herrick for The Colorado Independent. State Sen. Brittany Pettersen never figured she would have to fight so hard to persuade her colleagues to expand opioid-addiction treatment in Colorado.

The numbers, she said, speak for themselves: About 48 Coloradans die from opioids like heroin and Fentanyl every month. Contaminated needles are driving up the number of cases of hepatitis C, a deadly virus. State agencies spend tens of millions of dollars fighting the ravages of drugs, but even so, about half of Colorado’s counties still lack basic treatment options.

Senate President Leroy Garcia called opioid abuse an “epidemic” in his opening day speech in January, and the session’s very first bill called for more opioid treatment in rural Colorado, where drugs take the greatest toll.

But on Wednesday, Pettersen said, “I feel like I’m screaming into the void.”

“Everyone likes to use it in their opening day speeches, but nobody likes to actually prioritize it,” she said of opioid-addiction treatment.

Pettersen was referring to the fate of two bills she sponsored this session: one that would bring opioid-addiction treatment to prisons and another that would make an overdose-reversal drug, Narcan, widely available in Colorado.

Her fellow senators have declined to fund either measure so far, and the odds of finding the money between now and the end of the session on May 3 grow slimmer every day.

READ MORE in The Colorado Independent