Colorado Proposition 132’s proposed drastic penalties for fentanyl: A dangerous overreaction

Of the more than 44,000 people who died from opioid overdoses in the United States in 2025, many of these involved fentanyl and other powerful synthetic opioids. A November ballot measure in Colorado takes a drastic, take-no-prisoners posture toward some very valid fears. This ballot measure, Proposition 132, will not reduce addiction or prevent overdoses. Instead, it would criminalize more people and amp up punitive, muscular sentencing.

Colorado Proposition 132, titled the Penalties for Fentanyl Sale and Possession Initiative, raises the criminal classifications for fentanyl across the board, making even possession of tiny amounts a felony. The measure applies mandatory sentences of eight to 32 years and fines up to $1 million to anyone who distributes any amount of fentanyl to a minor, anyone who provides at least four grams to someone who dies as a result of using it, and anybody providing a large quantity of fentanyl to anyone. Possessing less than a gram of fentanyl would constitute a treatment-mandated drug felony.

Proposition 132 also removes eligibility for some fentanyl offenses to obtain certain exceptions to harsh sentencing for mitigating circumstances, such as when a person calls authorities to help a person who is overdosing and cooperates with the authorities.

Should Proposition 132 pass, it means a lot more people will be mandated to prison time, and it effectively converts selling or even handing a pill to someone who dies—even if the person handing out the pill had no idea it contained fentanyl—into a murder case. The proposition also would limit judicial discretion to sentence some people to probation and limit the applicability of other possible reductions to a person’s sentence for even tiny amounts of the synthetic opioids.

These provisions render Proposition 132 all-in on punitive tactics and are likely to clog Colorado prisons with minor drug offenders. The Fiscal Impact Statement prepared by the Colorado Legislative Council says this will cost taxpayers significantly. By year five, state spending on prison and parole alone will increase by an estimated $142 million as a result of the changes made by Prop. 132. Moreover, because of the expected increase in prison population, “costs could increase by up to $422.5 million if the General Assembly decides to build sufficient state prison beds to accommodate the full increase in average daily prison population,” the report anticipates.

And at least one expert believes it will actually lead to an increase in overdose deaths. A published simulation by Dr. Joshua Barocas, executive director of the Colorado Poverty and Health Initiative and professor of medicine and epidemiology, estimates an additional 1,718 overdose deaths will occur over the five years following implementation—a 41.3% increase in overdose mortality, according to the report. The author attributes the projected increase to “the interaction between involvement in the criminal legal system and access to treatment. While criminal justice involvement may create opportunities for treatment engagement for some individuals, the current treatment infrastructure reaches only a portion of people with opioid use disorder.” What’s more, the proposition also mandates treatment in more lower-level cases, which could easily make it even harder to access care in the state by increasing waitlists.  

Fentanyl has pervasively plagued the unregulated drug supply for years and exacerbated the opioid overdose epidemic since its introduction to the illicit market around 2014. But fentanyl has also already ceded way to newer and stronger synthetic opioids, like nitazenes and orphines. Criminalizing drugs does not make the demand for them disappear. The law will not keep pace with the inventions of drug traffickers seeking to evade interdiction and meet that demand.

There has been a profusion of legislation like this ballot measure that allows homicide prosecutions of people who provide drugs that lead to an overdose, even if the person had no idea that there was fentanyl or an adulterant in the drugs. These kinds of laws are now applicable in 23 states, D.C., and the federal system.

It is important to address the overdose crisis in Colorado, but propositions like this are not the way. Rather than saving lives or reducing addiction, Proposition 132 would instead discourage people from calling for help during overdoses or seeking treatment for opioid use disorders out of fear of criminal prosecution and prison time. This will only fill Colorado’s prisons with more people—many of whom need treatment, not incarceration.

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