The Denver Post takes a long, winding stroll through Colorado’s rising overdose deaths and lands, somehow, in the fog machine. The article reports that fatal overdoses rose in Colorado in 2025 while much of the country improved, with Denver seeing especially brutal numbers in March, April, and May. The Post points to fentanyl, meth, powder supply shifts, drug seizures, and “experts” trying to explain the mystery without wandering too close to the obvious policy wreckage sitting in broad daylight.
The piece says Colorado overdose deaths increased from 1,603 in 2024 to 1,813 in 2025, according to preliminary state data. Denver alone had 63 overdose deaths in March, 58 in April, and 63 again in May. Most of those who died in Denver had both fentanyl and methamphetamine in their systems, according to the city’s chief medical examiner.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Colorado went the wrong direction while most of the country improved. Nationwide overdose deaths reportedly dropped 15% in 2025, while Colorado rose 13%. That is not a rounding error. That is the dashboard lighting up while the driver asks if anyone smells smoke.
- The Post spends plenty of time on “chaotic supply,” fentanyl powder, counterfeit pills, and meth mixtures. Fair enough. The drug supply is deadly and unpredictable. But pretending the policy environment has nothing to do with how poison moves through a state is some Olympic-level tap dancing.
- The DEA says fentanyl seizures hit a record in the region, with much of it starting with cartels in Mexico and moving up Interstate 25. A Douglas County storage unit alone reportedly held 1.7 million counterfeit pills, plus enough powder to make about 6 million more. But sure, let’s keep calling this a “public health puzzle” like it fell out of a cereal box.
- One DEA official actually says the quiet part out loud: Colorado needs more drug education, a message that substance use is not acceptable, and penalties for trafficking severe enough to deter criminals. Amazing what happens when someone in the article briefly exits the faculty lounge and visits reality.
- The proposed solutions include more testing machines, more harm reduction, supervised use sites, and even “safer supply” ideas like medical-grade fentanyl patches and prescription amphetamines. Because when the house is on fire, Denver’s policy class reaches for a scented candle and a grant application.
My Bottom Line
Leave it to The Denver Post to write a big “gee, I wonder why” piece about Colorado overdose deaths while tiptoeing around the crater in the middle of the room. We do not have a shortage of experts. We have a shortage of adults willing to say what every deputy, parent, teacher, EMT, and small-town mayor already knows.
Colorado has spent years making life harder for cops, easier for criminals, and friendlier to sanctuary-style politics that make enforcement murkier and communities less safe. Add cartels, fentanyl, meth, and a statehouse full of people who think consequences are mean, and here we are. Dead bodies. Broken families. Public officials staring at the ceiling fan like the answer is written on blade three.
This is the part the ruling elite hates: compassion without order is not compassion. It is surrender with better branding. You cannot hug your way out of fentanyl trafficking. You cannot test-strip your way out of cartel supply chains. You cannot solve an enforcement crisis by blaming enforcement every time someone actually takes poison off the street.
Treatment matters. Prevention matters. Recovery matters. So does law enforcement. So does the border. So does prosecution. So does telling traffickers that Colorado is closed for business. Until the political class can say all of that in the same sentence without needing a fainting couch, these “mystery” articles will keep writing themselves. And more Coloradans will keep paying the price.
Source: The Denver Post
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