Opinion: The War on Drugs didn’t end the overdose crisis. Proposition 132 won’t either.

Addiction and the tragedy of overdose deaths don’t discriminate. Coloradans throughout the state — rural and urban, from every income background, at every age and across political party lines — have struggled with opioid addiction themselves or know someone who has.

Every Coloradan of good sense wants the same thing: fewer overdose deaths, healthier communities and hope for families afflicted by addiction. We do too.

That’s why we oppose Proposition 132, a statewide ballot measure that will significantly increase mandatory prison sentences (up to 32 years) for certain opioid-related offenses and eliminate opportunities for some people convicted of drug possession felonies to clear those convictions from their records. Supporters believe harsher penalties will help curb the opioid crisis. We share their urgency, but cannot support the heightened criminalization they propose as a solution.

As leaders in public health and emergency medicine, we’ve seen the opioid crisis up close. We’ve comforted grieving families, treated people whose lives were saved by timely medical care, and worked alongside communities searching for answers. The urgency is real. But urgency doesn’t justify policies that decades of evidence show will make the crisis worse.

Coloradans face an important choice. Proposition 132 asks voters to respond to the opioid crisis by returning to a familiar strategy: harsher criminal penalties, longer prison sentences and more permanent consequences for people convicted of certain drug offenses. It’s a reheated version of a policy America has tried and failed with for more than 50 years.

The War on Drugs promised that tougher penalties would reduce drug use, dismantle trafficking and make communities safer. Instead, addiction continues to rise; illicit drug markets have adapted and expanded; and overdose deaths have reached historic levels. Communities across the country have spent billions of dollars on increased incarceration while underinvesting in opioid use prevention and evidence-based interventions.

Colorado’s correctional system, prosecutors and public defenders already face significant staffing shortages and budget pressures. Rather than strengthening our health-based response to addiction, Proposition 132 would require the state to absorb millions in additional justice system and correctional costs. According to the state’s nonpartisan fiscal analysis of Proposition 132, the measure would increase state expenditures by nearly $45 million over its first five years in prison costs alone. 

The analysis also emphasizes, “incarcerating additional individuals in state prison will reduce workforce participation, which may reduce economic activity from labor.” Every dollar spent expanding incarceration is a dollar lost for opioid use prevention, addiction treatment and other approaches proven to save lives. 

Fentanyl and other powerful synthetic opioids present new dangers, but the evidence hasn’t changed. Research consistently shows that increasing criminal penalties for people who use drugs does little to reduce addiction or deaths. Longer prison sentences aren’t an effective response to substance use conditions. In fact, incarceration often increases the risk of overdose after release, disrupts recovery and can discourage people from seeking emergency help during an overdose.

One Colorado-specific analysis estimates that Proposition 132 could result in more than 1,700 additional overdose deaths over five years compared with current law. If saving lives is our objective, those findings deserve serious attention.

Our justice system should absolutely hold large-scale manufacturers, over-prescribers and traffickers accountable, particularly those who knowingly profit from poisoning our communities. But a one-size-fits-all approach that relies on mandatory sentencing risks treating fundamentally different situations as though they are the same.

A young adult who unknowingly shares a counterfeit pill is not the same as an organized criminal enterprise manufacturing fentanyl and importing it into Colorado. A person living with a substance use condition who experiences a relapse isn’t the same as someone intentionally profiting from addiction. Good public policy recognizes those differences; Proposition 132 does not.

We know that pill- and opioid-use prevention education, early intervention and expanding access to housing, healthcare, supports and services reduces overdose deaths and helps people rebuild their lives. We know that promoting healthful practices and connecting people to care costs less (in both dollars and human suffering) than cycling them repeatedly through the criminal legal system.

Mental Health Colorado has long advocated for upstream solutions because healthier communities are built by promoting health and preventing crises before they occur, not by imposing harsher punishments after they do. That philosophy guides our work on mental health, suicide prevention and substance use because evidence — not fear, discrimination or politics — should drive public health and safety policy. 

Colorado doesn’t have to choose between health and safety. We can have both. We can continue pursuing those who knowingly manufacture and traffic fentanyl while investing in strategies that reduce demand, support recovery and prevent overdose.

If our goal is truly to save lives and make smart use of taxpayer dollars, then Colorado should reject Proposition 132 and move beyond the failed policies of the War on Drugs toward solutions that are proven to work.

Vincent Atchity, of Denver, is the president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado.

Case Newsom, of Denver, is an emergency room physician and medical director for the Zendo Project and Stadium Medical.

The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at opinion@coloradosun.com.

Follow Colorado Sun Opinion on Facebook.