Debate Fact-Check: No, Denver Does Not Have a Supervised Injection Site

When 9News mayoral debate host Kyle Clark asked candidates on stage on February 16 whether they support the idea of creating a supervised drug injection site, an odd moment took place.

As five out of the thirteen candidates there raised their hands to express support for the City of Denver establishing such a site, Debbie Ortega, an at-large member of Denver City Council running for mayor, said, "We already have one."

Clark responded, "You believe that we already have one?"

"We already have one," Ortega doubled down.

During this exchange, which featured only those candidates who have qualified for the Fair Elections Fund public-financing system, Leslie Herod, a Democratic state representative, could be heard whispering to Ortega, "No, we don't."

Ortega tried to continue by saying, "The Harm Reduction Center is a super —" before tailing off as Clark continued prodding the assertion that Denver has a supervised injection site.

Time for a fact-check: The Mile High City most definitely does not have a supervised injection site. And Ortega should be intimately familiar with this fact.

In November 2018, Denver City Council voted 12-1 in favor of establishing a plan to allow for a supervised injection site. Councilman Kevin Flynn was the lone "no" vote. Ortega voted in favor of the plan.

Such a site allows people to use drugs in a sterile and safe setting, with trained staff on hand to reverse any overdoses and prevent fatalities. Denver officials had cited a series of longstanding sites in Vancouver as an example of how these types of facilities can save lives.

But the administration of Donald Trump responded to the passage of the legislation by warning Denver that it could face legal trouble if it authorizes a safe injection site on city land.

And Mayor Michael Hancock, who signed the supervised-injection-site bill into law, walked back his initial support right around the time he announced his re-election bid in early 2019.

That year, 225 people died in drug-related deaths in Denver, according to the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment. That figure was 370 in 2020 and 473 in 2021.

Attempts at the Colorado Legislature to legalize supervised injection sites in Colorado have failed until now.

But there's a new bill in the legislature this year that would do just that. It's prime-sponsored by all Democrats: representatives Elisabeth Epps and Jenny Willford and senators Kevin Priola and Julie Gonzales.

"I've read the bill, and I will be a 'yes' vote," Herod said when asked by Anusha Roy, another 9News debate moderator, why she didn't sign on to the bill as a co-sponsor. "I support supervised-use sites."

On the other hand, Chris Hansen, a Democratic state senator who is also running for Denver mayor, spoke about his opposition to such sites.

"Stable housing with wraparound services and drug treatment on site. That is what's showing long-term results," Hansen said on the debate stage, noting that he'll vote "no" on the bill.

In contrast to Trump's White House, the Joe Biden administration has adopted a more accepting stance toward safe injection facilities, allowing sites to be set up in New York City in 2021 without intervening.

Ortega appears to have confused the Harm Reduction Action Center, which provides clean needles and sanitary supplies to drug users at its 112 East Eighth Avenue location, with a supervised injection site, and now acknowledges the difference.

“Denver’s Harm Reduction Action Center currently offers education and resources to the community. In 2018, I voted in support of expanding its services to include a safe injection site, which can only go into effect with statewide legislation," Ortega says.

Lisa Raville, executive director of the Harm Reduction Action Center, very much wishes to see a supervised injection site come to Denver, a possibility that city officials have essentially left up to what happens in the Colorado Legislature. But she points out that there's still no sanctioned supervised-use site in Denver.

"Nothing legal yet," Raville says. "I heard that. I think she was just confused from the 2018 vote."