False campaign ad claims “Democrats legalized fentanyl”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, October 31, 2022
CONTACT: Sara Loflin, Executive Director at [email protected]

DENVER: Responding to a new television ad released by Republican congressional candidate Barb Kirkmeyer that repeatedly and falsely claims that Colorado Democrats “legalized fentanyl,” [1] ProgressNow Colorado, the state’s largest multi-issue progressive advocacy organization, called on local media outlets to pull the ad from circulation immediately.

“Barb Kirkmeyer knows perfectly well that Democrats did not and would never ‘legalize fentanyl,’” said ProgressNow Colorado Executive Director Sara Loflin. “As a state senator, Kirkmeyer was present for the debate this year over legislation to increase penalties for fentanyl possession, not reduce them. Fentanyl has never been legal in Colorado without a prescription, and no legislation voted in the Colorado legislature would change that. There is absolutely no justification for Kirkmeyer’s claim that ‘Democrats legalized fentanyl.’ It’s not just misleading, or a difference of opinion, it’s a knowing and deliberate flat-out lie.”

“Responsible media outlets should immediately remove this ad from broadcast, and Barb Kirkmeyer owes the residents of the Eighth Congressional District an apology for brazenly lying about this gravely important subject,” said Loflin. “Terrorizing the voters with outright lies about the very real crisis of fentanyl addiction is the worst kind of gutter politics and an affront to thousands of Coloradans who have struggled with and died from opioid addiction. Like Kirkmeyer herself, who supported Weld County seceding from the rest of Colorado in 2013, these dishonest politics have no place in our state.”

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