Hugh McKean, minority leader of the Colorado State House Republicans, joins the show to talk about the fentanyl issue and legislation.
Democrats in the Colorado State Legislature are scared to death of the political fallout from having included fentanyl in the group of drugs where possession of a small amount was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor because a small amount of fentanyl can kill, and small amounts of fentanyl are killing, citizens of Colorado. They've been trying to craft a bill to address the issue between angry Republicans (and many angry parents) and frustrated law enforcement officers and prosecutors (one of whom will be on the show today) and, on the other side, criminal justice reform advocates who argue that simple possession of a small amount for personal use should be dealt with by some way other than jail time. I don't envy their task because both sides have rational points. I think the key issue is that anyone who is dealing the stuff must be dealt with harshly and I do like a proposed provision that if someone sells something that includes any fentanyl, the entire weight of the product being sold will count as fentanyl regardless of what percentage of it is actually fentanyl, for purposes of criminal charges. That's one way to at least try to make sure that dealers know whether they're selling fentanyl. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the street-level dealers don't actually know right now.
By the time you read this, the bill may have already passed and we're going to have a couple of Republican guests on to talk about it, and then tomorrow we'll have a Democrat on.