[link removed] [[link removed]] I have often talked about how my first visit to the San Luis Valley as a candidate for Attorney General transformed my approach to the campaign and serving as AG. It started with a pancake breakfast with Alamosa Sheriff Robert Jackson at the Campus Cafe (the pancakes and cinnamon rolls there are really great).
My daughter Aviva and I at the Campus Cafe admiring the cinnamon roll; Sheriff Robert Jackson and I after our visit
At that breakfast, Sheriff Robert Jackson told me a jaw-dropping fact—over 90% of all inmates in the jail in Alamosa County were struggling with opioid use disorder. The fact was so jaw-dropping that no one believed me when I repeated the story—until Colorado Public Radio [[link removed]] later reported it. The moral of that story was very compelling—”I can’t help them,” he told me, “but if you are elected as Attorney General, you can do something about this crisis.”
As Attorney General, I have done something—and we have now brought back over $860 million in settlement funds to Colorado. The latest settlement is particularly meaningful, because it results from the first case I brought to hold accountable those who fueled this crisis through their wrongful actions. A few weeks ago, we announced a settlement with the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma that will bring over $70 million to Colorado, as explained in this Denver Post [[link removed]] story. The way the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma lied to people, made a lot of money, and harmed people is sickening. This action provides some measure of accountability.
These funds are making a difference. And that difference is evident in communities like the San Luis Valley, where the regional council, led by Commissioner Lori Laske, developed plans for and received funds to open the first drug treatment center in the Valley in generations. (I discussed the significance of this accomplishment to the Alamosa newspaper in this interview [[link removed]] .) That means that Sheriff Jackson has an alternative option—to refer inmates to a drug treatment center as an alternative to incarceration or after incarceration. We have also helped fund medication addiction treatment in all Colorado jails, something I recently celebrated in my talk to the Colorado Sheriffs Association [[link removed]] . Here’s a picture of Sheriff Jackson and I (along with my friend Erin, who initially introduced us) at the opening of the new drug treatment center, Hope in the Valley:
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My leadership on the opioid crisis represents how I plan to campaign for Governor and serve as Governor—to show up, to listen hard, and to develop effective solutions. Our approach to using those settlement funds is a national model—and was recognized as much by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. And we also did something few states did—we created a dashboard [[link removed]] that shows how every settlement dollar was spent. That’s how we build trust in government, through listening, innovative and collaborative problem solving, and transparency.
Thank you for supporting me in this important work.
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Phil
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Phil Weiser for Colorado
PO Box 13644
Denver, CO 80201
United States
