On the November 3, 2026 ballot
What it would change, what it would cost, what each side says, and what happened the last time Colorado raised fentanyl penalties. Facts come from the state's official ballot guide (the Blue Book) unless noted.
Read the official Blue Book analysis before you vote.
What it changes
It changes state law, not the constitution, so it passes with a simple majority.
| Offense | Current law | Proposition 132 |
|---|---|---|
| Selling over 50 grams | Mandatory 8–32 years | Mandatory 8–32 years |
| Selling 4–50 grams | Possible 4–8 years | Mandatory 8–32 years |
| Selling under 4 grams | Possible 2–4 years | Mandatory 8–32 years |
| Possessing 1–4 grams | Possible 6 months–1 year | Possible 2–4 years |
| Possessing under 1 gram | No prison | Felony; possible 6 months–1 year; court-ordered treatment, and the charge can drop to a misdemeanor if treatment is finished |
It applies to selling or distributing any amount, not to simple possession. Judges also couldn't count a defendant's reasonable belief that a drug had no fentanyl in it as a reason for a lighter sentence.
Cost
State costs rise from $0.9 million in the first year to $8.9 million in the second and $68.2 million by the fifth, and keep growing. The state "may need to construct or contract for additional prison space." The Blue Book does not estimate how many more people would be in prison.
The sponsor, Advance Colorado, is a nonprofit that does not disclose its donors. Supporters include District Attorney George Brauchler, Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and families who lost loved ones to overdoses. Opponents include the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty and Dr. Josh Barocas of CU Anschutz; their committee had raised $1.1 million by September 30. The measure qualified with 187,699 signatures submitted.
Colorado Newsline · Colorado Politics · Denver7 · Secretary of State
"Dark money" is political spending by groups, usually nonprofits, that don't have to say where their money comes from. Advance Colorado, the sponsor of Proposition 132, is one: it spent to put the measure on the ballot without naming its donors.
Critics of dark money argue it leaves voters unable to see who is paying to change the law and what those donors stand to gain, lets a few wealthy funders shape what reaches the ballot, and makes it harder to hold anyone accountable for the claims a campaign makes.
Colorado's constitution requires groups whose "major purpose" is supporting or opposing a ballot measure to register and report. In 2021 the Secretary of State ordered a different nonprofit, Unite for Colorado, to reveal its donors and pay a $40,000 fine for failing to do so.
The gray zone
The 8-year minimum applies to "distribution." In Colorado law, that word already covers more than selling.
State law defines distributing as delivering a drug "with or without remuneration," and a "sale" includes "a gift." The Blue Book says the measure covers "the selling, transfer or sharing, of any amount." A narrower rule for sharing a drug to use together stays in the law; the measure's text doesn't make clear which rule would win for fentanyl.
With a mandatory minimum, judges can't adjust the sentence much, so the charge a prosecutor picks largely decides it. A federal study found most of a nearly 10% longer sentence for Black defendants traced back to prosecutors' first charging decisions, especially charges carrying mandatory minimums. In Denver, white defendants charged with drug offenses had charges reduced more often than Black and Hispanic defendants with similar records.
Starr & Rehavi, 2014 · Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab, 2023
Colorado's public defenders had 83% of the trial attorneys their own workload standard calls for in 2024–25, handling about 130,000 new trial cases. A national study in 2023 recommended about 35 hours of attorney time per felony.
In a national dataset of 263 drug-induced homicide prosecutions, about half charged the co-using friends, family or partners of the person who died, not dealers.
Grief sits on both sides of this vote.
The last time
In 2022, Colorado made possession of 1 to 4 grams of a fentanyl mix a felony, and paired it with about $39 million for naloxone, test strips, harm reduction, crisis care and treatment, including in jails.
Researchers who studied news coverage found that crack in the late 1980s was framed as crime, while opioids in 2016–17 were framed as a medical problem. In coverage of heroin, stories about white users were sympathetic and focused on treatment; none suggested jailing them, while stories about Black and Latino users read like arrest reports.
The opioid crisis also brought money: national settlements with drug companies total more than $50 billion, about $912.6 million of it for Colorado, paid out through regional councils for treatment and recovery.
Shachar et al., 2020 · Netherland & Hansen, 2016 · KFF Health News · Colorado Attorney General · The drug war chapter