New fentanyl bill would allow Colorado schools to provide fentanyl testing strips
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- In a big announcement this week, Governor Jared Polis touted a new bill that is expected to be introduced into the state legislature next week for its plan to harshen penalties for fentanyl distribution in Colorado.
The bill would up the penalties though for possessing larger amounts of the drug, or for showing any intent to distribute fentanyl. However, the bill is coming under fire from law enforcement as it allows possession of smaller -- but still lethal -- amounts of fentanyl to remain a misdemeanor.
Something else this bill would allow for is increased state funding for both the emergency overdose treatment naloxone and for fentanyl testing strips -- which are controversial.
"You don't want to be perceived as enabling or promoting drug use," said El Paso County Coroner Dr. Leon Kelly. "The fentanyl strips aren't going to solve the problem. They aren't going to fix the underlying issue -- but what they do is give an addict someone who has a disease, a chance of survival."
Dr. Kelly said Friday that most people don't understand that they're taking fentanyl in the first place.
"It's in pills that are stamped look like other prescription medications. It's illicitly present and other things like methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin," he said. "You can't smell it, you can't taste it. You can't see it. You don't know it's there, but even tiny amounts have the potential to end people's life."
In one Colorado Springs school district, three students have died from fentanyl overdoses this school year alone. Dr. Kelly said people now have to assume that any drug they're getting not from a pharmacy will likely contain fentanyl.
"A few months ago, we saw our largest jump in kids [fentanyl overdoses] we've ever seen," Dr. Kelly said.
This new bill would not only provide more funding for fentanyl testing strips, but it would also allow Colorado schools to distribute those testing strips to their students.
"It's a harm reduction tool, much like you'd say we have fire extinguishers and we have AEDs, and we have naloxone, and we have fentanyl test strips, and we have all these harm reducing things around to keep people safe and keep them alive," Dr. Robert Valuck from the University of Colorado Center for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention told KRDO's news partners in Denver, adding that he has not seen any data that suggests access to fentanyl testing strips leads to increased drug use.
The number of deaths from fentanyl in El Paso County has doubled every year since 2017, with 102 people dying from fentanyl overdoses in 2021.
