Centennial State News

A Colorado mom whose 16-year-old died from fentanyl poisoning last year is disheartened that Gov. Jared Polis did not apologize for passing a law that she believes led to the death of her daughter.

“My heart is broken, yet again,” Miki Sedivy said in a release on Colorado gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl’s website. “Jared Polis couldn’t even say sorry for decriminalizing fentanyl. His law killed my child, and so many others. There are no words.”

During Thursday's televised debate between incumbent Polis and Ganahl, Polis passed on an opportunity to apologize to parents in the audience who lost a child to fentanyl.

A recent report from the Common Sense Institute of Colorado predicted that by the end of this year, 2,000 Coloradans will have died from drug overdoses, with 1,500 involving fentanyl. State law enforcement officials seized 2 million dosage units of fentanyl between January and May of this year, which was more fentanyl than was seized in all of 2021. The report noted that in 2021, two to three Coloradans died from fentanyl or other synthetic opioids every day, but that number has risen to four to five daily deaths this year.

In 2019, Polis signed HB 19-1263 into law, making possession of up to 4 grams of fentanyl a misdemeanor.

Law enforcement officers and local officials spoke out against the bill, with Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers saying at a news conference in January of this year, “Legislators are on a different planet. They don’t see what law enforcement is going through on a day-to-day basis.” 

Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said in an interview, “Marijuana is not the same thing as fentanyl, but yet fentanyl is being treated the same way as marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, all these different drugs – and not all of them have the same effect on people as fentanyl does.” 

In 2021 in El Paso County, fentanyl led to more overdose deaths than methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.

In the wake of that pushback, Polis signed HB 22-1326 into law in May, changing the criminal penalties related to fentanyl once again to make possession of more than one gram of the synthetic opiate a felony.

Ganahl said she would work to make possession of any amount of fentanyl a felony and said, "the first dollar I will spend as governor is cleaning up the crime tsunami that has been put in place over the last four years.”

During the debate, Polis and Ganahl discussed key issues including fentanyl and crime, abortion and taxes, according to the Colorado Sun, which hosted the event in partnership with CBS4. Both candidates have said that they would support eliminating the state's income tax, with Ganahl's plan hinging on a government hiring freeze, excluding the Colorado State Patrol, which is understaffed, and would include converting some of the state's fees into taxes with voter approval. Polis has said he would create pollution and carbon taxes to replace the revenue from income taxes. 

On the subject of their own income taxes, both candidates have said they are willing to provide their tax returns. Ganahl said, “We don’t have to discuss it. I’m happy to.” Multimillionaire Polis has previously released tax returns and come under fire for not paying federal income taxes from 2013 to 2015. Between 2010 and 2018, Polis paid federal income taxes at a rate of 8.2%, while a Coloradan making $45,000 in 2018 would have paid income taxes at a rate of 19%.