Pueblo, Colorado, police chief joins call to toughen fentanyl laws

Pueblo Chief of Police Chris Noeller hopes Colorado lawmakers took in what he and almost 4 dozen different Colorado police chiefs instructed them final week after they testified on a invoice to make possession of any amount of fentanyl a felony. 

“I’ve been in regulation enforcement since January 1994 and drug enforcement for 10 years,” Noeller instructed the Chieftain. “Fentanyl is essentially the most deadly drug we’ve ever seen.”

Ingesting a pencil-lead sized quantity of fentanyl will kill an individual, he stated. 

“There’s 40-plus chiefs of police (in Colorado) which are saying … that we want possession to be a felony. I want to suppose that lawmakers would take heed to us — there’s in all probability 1,000 years of mixed expertise within the Colorado Affiliation of Chiefs of Police. I’ve been a cop for 29 years. Multiply that by 46, and that’s a lot of years of expertise,” he stated.

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Colorado lawmakers in 2019 lowered to a misdemeanor possession of 4 grams or much less of fentanyl, despite the fact that overdose deaths from the highly effective artificial painkiller and different opioids had elevated alarmingly between 2011 and 2018.

Over the subsequent yr, deaths in Colorado associated to opioid ache relievers, together with fentanyl, elevated by 82%, in response to the Colorado Well being Institute, which produces nonpartisan, impartial information and evidenced-based evaluation to assist decision-makers. 

In 2021, the US reached “a terrifying threshold by shedding over 100,000 lives to drug overdoses throughout a single yr,” Colorado Legal professional Common Phil Weiser stated in testimony final week to the Colorado Home Judiciary Committee on the invoice that will return possession of fentanyl to felony standing. Colorado police chiefs testified Tuesday, Noeller stated.

Extra:Fentanyl seizures by Colorado State Patrol grew by greater than 400% final yr

The invoice, which is predicted to return up for one more vote by Colorado lawmakers on Tuesday, initially proposed making illegal possession of “any materials, compound, combination, or preparation that weighs greater than 4 grams and incorporates any quantity of fentanyl” or a comparable opioid, a category 4 felony. 

Class 4 felonies are punishable in Colorado by fines of $2,000 to $500,000 and two to 6 years in jail.

The model handed by the Home Judiciary Committee on Wednesday would make it a felony to own a couple of gram of a substance containing any quantity of fentanyl, if the individual knew or ought to have recognized what was within the drug they have been shopping for.

That does not go far sufficient, stated Noeller. 

“We — me because the chief right here in Pueblo and as a member of the Colorado Affiliation of Chiefs of Police — consider that any possession of any amount of fentanyl ought to be a felony cost,” he stated.

Households of people that died after ingesting fentanyl, knowingly or unknowingly, appeared to agree, he stated. 

“We heard lots of dad and mom, and their testimony was simply tragic — about what occurred to their youngsters, how they purchased one drug and thought it was one other or regardless of the circumstance was that led their cherished one to ingest fentanyl,” he instructed The Chieftain.

“The fact is, had an officer contacted them in possession of that and been in a position to put them in jail that night time on the felony, they might have lived that night time,” he stated. “Loads of households stated they’d fairly have their cherished one charged with a felony and nonetheless be right here than to have died from ingesting that lethal drug.”

Typically, Noeller stated, when regulation enforcement “contacts” somebody on the road on a suspected drug offense, “they’re able to cease.” 

“They’re at all-time low, they need assist — and we simply allow them to go,” due to the 2019 regulation that made possession of many artificial opioids and different medication a misdemeanor. 

“And the place do they go? They return to the identical atmosphere they have been in earlier than,” he stated.

“If we will put a disconnect in there … if we will take them to jail and get them away from the atmosphere they’re in and permit them to do some considering, a few of these folks will make the most of that and can take part in applications” equivalent to remedy assisted remedy or Regulation Enforcement Assisted Diversion, which redirects folks suspected of involvement in nonviolent, low-level drug exercise into community-based companies as an alternative of jail.

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What Pueblo desires

Noeller can be pushing for the regulation to be harder on fentanyl possession as a result of, he stated, Pueblo residents need it.

“The folks of Pueblo are getting bored with seeing zombies strolling round, of seeing folks handed out at cease lights of their automobiles, folks being arrested for misdemeanor offenses and let go as a result of we will’t take them to jail,” he stated.

“I feel they need us to do one thing to have the ability to attempt to change the course of crime and high quality of life in our group, and that is a method we will do this.”

Opioid painkillers have been discovered within the methods of 45 individuals who died of drug overdoses in Pueblo County between 2019 and 2022, and fentanyl particularly in 38 toxicology reviews, in response to information on the county’s web site. These two numbers mixed make opioids the second more than likely drug to be present in deadly overdose victims after methamphetamine.

However many medication, together with meth and customary over-the-counter cures which are purchased off-market, are laced with fentanyl, and “presence of a drug doesn’t essentially point out direct reason behind loss of life,” the Pueblo Division of Public Well being and Atmosphere says.

Karin Zeitvogel will be contacted by e-mail at kzeitvogel@chieftain.com