The Denver Chief chose his side...F his disappointment.
Posted on 03/25/2022 9:23:09 AM PDT by real saxophonist
Denver police chief ‘very disappointed’ by new fentanyl bill
by: Gabrielle Franklin
Mar 24, 2022
DENVER (KDVR) — Stakeholders and community members have been asking lawmakers to beef up fentanyl laws for months.
The calls grew louder after the deaths of five people in Commerce City due to the likely overdose of the drug they may not have known they were taking.
Thursday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers revealed a new proposal they hope will address the overdoses that are happening more and more.
The bill lawmakers are proposing seeks to hold drug dealers accountable for selling the lethal drug to users. However, it still does not make a felony of possession of small amounts of fentanyl (4 grams or less), and that is not sitting well with police.
“What I can say is that I’m very disappointed,” Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen said. “Disappointed that possession hasn’t been addressed and when we are talking about fentanyl, we’re talking about something completely different here. This is unlike any other drug that we have ever had to work through in our community.”
Denver’s fentanyl-related cases quadrupled since 2021 The new proposal would make it a felony if someone is caught distributing any amount of fentanyl in the state.
“This bill gives law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need to put dangerous fentanyl dealers behind bars: low-level dealers, mid-level dealers and high-level dealers,” House Speaker Alec Garnett said on Thursday. He’s sponsoring the measure along with Reps. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, and Mike Lynch, a Republican who represents Larimer and Weld counties, along with Sens. Brittany Pettersen, D-Jefferson, and John Cooke, R-Weld.
The proposal also calls to make testing kits more widely available, increase treatment for users struggling with addiction and use American Rescue Plan funding for more of the overdose reversal drug Narcan. The measure got support from several district attorneys because of the ability it would give prosecutors to put people behind bars for having the potent drugs mixed into other substances.
“No drug is safe right now. No drug is safe. We are finding fentanyl in cocaine, we are finding it in heroin, we’re finding it in meth, we’re finding it in OxyContin,” 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason said.
Police said they appreciate the effort but they are concerned that as it stands, having 4 grams or less of fentanyl in Colorado would still be a misdemeanor but not a felony.
“There is absolutely no safe amount of fentanyl on our streets and the DEA is right: One pill can kill, and in our state and our communities, one pill has killed,” Pazen said. “Thinking about the deadliness that is associated with fentanyl and the fact that there is no safe amount of fentanyl, it really limits our ability to keep the community safe with the way the law was initiated and the way it appears in its present form.”
The County Sheriffs of Colorado, the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police and the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police released a joint statement, saying in part: “This drug is so deadly that possession of any amount should have a felony consequence. Since no amount of fentanyl is safe, this coalition will seek amendments to elevate ‘simple possession’ to a felony. Colorado cannot afford to take small, incremental steps to address the fentanyl crisis. Our response as a state needs to match the serious and deadly consequences brought on by this drug. Not taking these bold steps will only lead to more tragedy for Coloradans.”
Lawmakers said their goal is to get users help with addiction and punish the dealers putting it out there, but police want lawmakers to find a better balance with the measure.
I think he's actually disappointed beause the bill didn't provide funding for him to get more hair product.
Even with Lidocaine and legal, regulated Fentanyl, it was in the top 3 most painful things I've had to endure.
I was about to say, these guys are upset their feral governments aren’t giving them more draconian laws to kick in people’s doors, use asset forfeiture, and otherwise harass people in their own homes!
I think every cop, politician, lawyer, judge, DA, or anyone else involved in the CRIMINAL “war on drugs” scheme should be drug through a street of broken glass over a tar road during a Texas August day about noon, behind wild horses!!
You better think twice before snorting that line of coke... It may be laced with it.
“No drug is safe right now. No drug is safe. We are finding fentanyl in cocaine, we are finding it in heroin, we’re finding it in meth, we’re finding it in OxyContin,” 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason said.
Why is fentanyl in the drugs? The market place wants it?
My one reference in this case is one drug user hated another drug user so convinced/paid the drug supplier to add fentanyl to the other guys drugs to give him a “heart attack”. The first guy talked too much about it so the drug supplier repeated the process. Told to me by another former prison cadet.
Wow, there actually is a law this putz thinks should be enforced? I had no idea.
beause = because, of course.
The Denver Chief chose his side...F his disappointment.
“Denver police chief ‘very disappointed’ by new fentanyl bill”
Apparently, the child (or children) of the appropriate CO politicians haven’t died of an OD yet. Lose a few of those...maybe the pols will change their minds.
That excuse only works if you believed you were taking apple pie, or M&Ms, or scrambled eggs. You knew you were taking a drug for "recreational" reasons and if you didn't mix up the batch yourself you had no way to know what was in it. Your death is on YOU.
The chief has plenty of drug laws he doesn’t enforce, so this isn’t about drugs, this is about him not getting a big budget.
So, not old enough for hemorrhoid surgery?
Had a bone marrow biopsy in my hip. Not even in top 10. The local anesthetic was quite effective. Maybe location matters.
I think the nurse anesthetist was erring on the very low side.
I hate the term “stakeholder”.
It’s usually a euphemism for special interest group.
Decriminalize drugs and give them away.
Yeah, I stopped at that first sentence and asked who in the world would be a “stakeholder” for illegal fentanyl. I have no clue who that would be.
My son is a deputy sheriff in Florida. He told me that the overdose deaths were up a lot in his county and it wasn't because the druggies were using more dope. It was that the dope was laced with fentanyl.
Fentanyl is in the drugs because it’s cheaper and easier to produce and smuggle. And far more potent. So instead of heroin, you get baking soda and a dollop of fentanyl or something like that.
They are putting into all kinds of pills too. You think you’re buying (illegally) xanax or ecstasy and instead you’re getting talcum powder with fentanyl.
The war on drugs has been an utter disaster. The war on pain medications just made things a whole lot worse. A decade ago it was fairly easy to get a prescription for pain medications and true, many got hooked on them by misusing them. But now you can’t get pain medications very easily and those who were hooked ended up buying street drugs - ultimately fentanyl pressed into tablets, or heroin which is now seemingly mostly fentanyl anyway.
I have heard that old school heroin addicts cannot even get high from real heroin anymore. They need the fentanyl. It’s that potent, addicting, and creates that high a tolerance. And, the wrong dose will kill you. Unmitigated disaster which we created without thinking through the consequences of policy decisions.
And as far as this bill goes, I don’t know what amount of fentanyl will kill a person but I am not in favor of locking up dime bag addicts for possession charges.
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