Drug overdoses in Colorado are seemingly spiking just a few years after the state’s elected Democrats decriminalized the possession of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and meth.
This week, five Americans — three women and two men — were found dead inside a Commerce City, Colorado, apartment after having overdosed on fentanyl. A sixth adult and a crying baby were also found in the apartment and taken to a nearby hospital.
In 2019, Democrats in the state legislature decriminalized possession of deadly drugs like fentanyl — making possession of four milligrams of fentanyl a misdemeanor rather than a felony.
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) notes that two milligrams of fentanyl can be deadly while one kilogram of fentanyl can kill half a million people. About a million milligrams are in one kilogram.
Democrat state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, now running for Congress in Colorado’s 8th congressional district, helped decriminalize fentanyl across the state. Denver, Colorado, Police Chief Paul Pazen has said that “the effect is people are dying” as a result of the law.
Republican Tyler Allcorn, a former Army Special Forces Green Beret running against Caraveo, blasted her and Democrats for decriminalizing small doses of fentanyl.
“Joe Biden’s failures at the southern border have brought us to this point and the Democrats here in Colorado — including my likely opponent Yadira Caraveo — passed laws that have made this problem worse and are killing people, Allcorn said in a statement.
Allcorn said:
Almost two Coloradans a day are dying from fentanyl overdoses and our state has become a war zone. It’s time for these Democrats to own up to what they’ve done and change the laws back to the way they were in 2019. Yadira Caraveo needs to break her silence on this issue and she also needs to tell Coloradans how she will secure our southern border.
Drug overdose deaths across Colorado have continued to climb. From September 2020 to September 2021, the state saw 1,825 residents die from drug overdoses. This represents an increase of nearly 350 overdose deaths compared to the year before.
Across the U.S., drug overdose deaths have skyrocketed in recent years. From April 2020 to April 2021, for example, more than 100,000 Americans died from overdoses. Deaths from overdoses now outpace the number of Americans killed from car crashes and guns, combined.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.