Vote yes on Proposition 132 and end Colorado’s harm reduction experiment

By The Gazette Editorial Board | Commentary, The Denver Gazette

Even as deadly fentanyl’s addictive grip on much of the rest of the country has eased for now, its cruel toll on Colorado has continued to climb. Despite encouraging signs a couple of years ago, when overdose deaths dropped in the state, they started surging again in late 2024. 

There are a number of reasons for that — but it doesn’t help that our state legislature waved the white flag long ago in the war on fentanyl. Ruling Democrats who blindly cling to the soft-on-crime, “justice reform” dogma notoriously decriminalized possession of fentanyl and other hard drugs in 2019. They also embrace a cornerstone of justice reform called “harm reduction” as their feeble response to the ongoing opioid overdose epidemic.

Born of the upside-down logic that drives the justice reformers, harm reduction doesn’t combat addiction, rather it indulges it. It views addicts of fentanyl and other opioids as victims of an ailment — it even has a name, “substance-use disorder” — rather than of bad choices they made that sent them down the wrong path. And it seeks to treat the presumed victims by looking the other way while their addictions kill them — intervening only to ensure they inject using clean needles.

Which explains publicly subsidized “needle exchanges” in Denver, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction and other cities. It also explains repeated attempts by harm reduction’s acolytes to start “safe-use” sites at which medical staff stand by to ensure addicts administer only the proper dose (“Not too much, now!”). Legalized safe use so far has run into the opposition of Gov. Jared Polis, but with a new governor soon to take office, who knows what’s next?

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Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.