In a Denver Gazette story that published this weekend, Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen told the newspaper that he was told that any effort to address Colorado’s meth epidemic during this past legislative session would kill the effort to address Colorado’s fentanyl epidemic.
According to the Denver Gazette, “In 2021, meth contributed to 734 overdose deaths in Colorado. That’s nearly double the number of residents who died by homicide that year, and it’s more than 10 times the meth death toll from 2011. More people died from meth overdoses in 2021 than in those tied to heroin, cocaine, prescription pills and alcohol combined.”
Pazen “said he was told that introducing meth into the conversation would kill the effort to address fentanyl.”
“The fact that the meth issue wasn’t addressed at the same time that (fentanyl) was addressed is a clear omission,” Pazen told the Denver Gazette, “that unfortunately we will be paying for with lives lost, with increased crime, with long-term psychosis, and none of those are good for our community.”