Pettersen Teams Up With CO Attorney General, Law Enforcement Officials to Combat Overdose Crisis in Colorado
DENVER, CO — Colorado Senator Brittany Pettersen (D-Lakewood) today joined Colorado Attorney General Phillip Weiser, Senator Kevin Priola (R-Brighton), and local law enforcement officials from across the state to discuss the growing crisis of overdose deaths in Colorado and to detail their plans to address it.
At a joint press conference, Pettersen - who chairs the state’s Behavioral Health Transformational Task Force - discussed her ongoing work to combat overdose deaths in Colorado, and previewed bipartisan legislation she intends to introduce alongside Sen. Priola in the upcoming General Assembly to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl, reduce the skyrocketing amount of it on the streets, and prevent tragic deaths.
“We are in the worst overdose crisis in the history of our country and it requires urgent action and dedicated resources in order to save Coloradans,” Pettersen said. “I am proud to partner with Attorney General Weiser and my colleagues from across the aisle to provide badly-needed resources to disrupt the supply of fentanyl by investigating and prosecuting the drug cartels who are exploiting people for profit. These grant dollars will allow local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to work together to share critical information and resources to combat this crisis, and will also help raise public awareness about the dangers of fentanyl. But we must do more, which is why we are also working to increase access to lifesaving treatment that is desperately needed for those who are struggling with substance use disorders to help prevent these tragedies before they occur.”
Pettersen, Priola, and AG Weiser were joined by Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock, Colorado District Attorneys Brian Mason, Michael Dougherty, and Dan Rubinstein, and Ray Bridges & Tami Gottsegen, the parents of Braden Burks, who tragically died of fentanyl poisoning in 2019.
Colorado is set to break the record for overdose deaths in a single year in 2021, with fentanyl - a synthetic opioid that is 80-100 times stronger than morphine - playing a leading role in many of those deaths.
A record 1,477 Coloradans died of an overdose in 2020, and preliminary data shows 2021 is on pace to be even worse, with at least 1,340 Coloradans overdosing already this year.