It’s here! Each year we do an evaluation of state legislators based on our Policy Priorities. Here’s a quick rundown of what to expect.
Our Policy Priorities
Systemic Investment Priorities – Think funding. We looked closely for bills that supported the substance use and behavioral health care safety net in Colorado.
Timely and Appropriate Reimbursement – We seek punctual reimbursement and equitable rates. This makes sure providers can, well, provide services without worrying about whether they can pay their bills on time. Plus, equitable rates means fair pay for the complexity of services we provide for Coloradans.
Workforce – People are our greatest assets. We love initiatives that sustain and develop the substance use and behavioral health workforce!
Comprehensive Access to Care – We know there are a lot of financial, systemic and logistical barriers to receiving services. We support affordable care, expanding services to make them more accessible (such as telehealth) and providing culturally/linguistically appropriate care.
Disentangling Behavioral Health from the Criminal Justice System – As our partners at Mental Health Colorado say: “Care, not Cuffs.” We support increased resources to re-entry, crisis response, continuity of care and other means to reduce our reliance on the carceral system.
Full Continuum Support for Prevention, Intervention, Treatment, Harm Reduction, and Recovery Services – The substance use and behavioral health care system is vast – and it’s because one size doesn’t fit all.
With these priorities in mind, we delved into the 2025 Legislative Session to extend our support (or opposition!) to bills that aligned (or didn’t!) with the things we care about.
What We Supported
We had tons of bills we kept on our radar, but because we’re a small (yet mighty) team, there are only a few bills we can dedicate resources to. In the scorecard you’ll see stars next to our priority bills – those are the ones our Policy Committee identified as the most important for us to work on. As an example, we’ll highlight HB25-1147 – the Fairness and Transparency in Municipal Court bill!
HB25-1147
The long and short of this bill is that municipal courts in Colorado are out of alignment with state standards. That includes handing down sentences that are longer than state legal limits, courtrooms closed to the public (which disallows court watching – a means to hold courts accountable) and more.
What are the implications for the substance use and behavioral health system? Well, individuals in municipal court face a 30 times longer sentence than those in state court, for the same sentence. Pair that with mandatory minimums and the idea that drug crimes are considered a crime against the community, and you’ve got a target population for harsher sentences. So we supported this bill.
Turns out, most legislators supported HB25-1147, too! 56% of the House and 68% of the Senate voted yes on this bill. Unfortunately, Governor Polis was under considerable pressure by the three biggest municipalities in the state: Denver, Colorado Springs and Aurora.
From Denver7:
In his veto letter, Polis said he appreciates the bill sponsors’ “good intentions” but believed the legislation “significantly restricts a municipality’s ability to react to local crime trends in ways that a local government deems most appropriate to improve public safety in their community.”
Sometimes that’s the way of the west. 657 bills were introduced this year -and sometimes it takes a couple re-introductions of a bill before it passes. We don’t let it discourage us – we keep trying. It’s about keeping people safe, and helping them get the care they need to thrive!
What We Opposed
Speaking of re-introducing bills, one of the bills we opposed this year has been re-introduced every year since 2022: the fentanyl bill.
SB25-044
This bill popped up in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 under intense scrutiny from substance use and behavioral health advocates. The goal of the bill was (and is, and always will be) to felonize opioid use, regardless of quantity. It’s framed as if people are intentionally killing others with fentanyl, hence the more frequent use of the term “fentanyl poisoning” as a means to direct blame and value judgments – people who use drugs are “criminals” and “overdose,” while non-drug users are “victims” and are “poisoned.”
As a result, the fentanyl bill and its many successors have been attempts to increase penalties for people who use drugs. As previously mentioned, mandatory minimums are often a part of drug sentencing, but they don’t work. Incarceration isn’t an effective means to deter any behavior – and jail isn’t what someone needs if they’re struggling.
This year, we stopped SB25-044. It’s imperative we keep doing the work we do to raise awareness about what works – evidence-based practices, such as harm reduction or wraparound services – and not imprisonment.
The Results
Because one of the bills we opposed, HB25-1293, was widely supported by legislators, no legislators received a 100% this year. But impact is more important than a number, so any legislator with a 75% is considered in alignment with our policy priorities.
As a result, 54% of Representatives and 46% of Senators are in alignment with COPA’s policy priorities this year!
If you missed the button at the top of the post, you can check out our legislative scorecard here. Get in touch if you have any questions – we’ll be around next year with more insights on bills that matter to you.