Colorado lethal drug prescriptions for assisted suicide surge; recording gaps prompt concerns

Colorado gave 580 people prescriptions for drugs meant to end their lives in 2025, according to a new state report.

This number marked a 12.4% increase in one year, up from 516 people in 2024.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment also received death certificates for 512 people who had received assisted-suicide prescriptions.

However, the state does not know how many of those 512 people took the drugs.

Some may have died from cancer or another illness. Others may have died from a different cause. The report provides no firm count of deaths caused by the lethal drugs.

“Deaths may have been due to ingestion of aid-in-dying medication, the underlying terminal illness or condition, or other causes,” the report says.

Colorado voters approved the End-of-Life Options Act in 2016. The law took effect in 2017.

It lets a Colorado adult seek lethal drugs after a health care provider finds that the person has less than six months to live. The person must take the drugs without another person administering them.

The number of prescriptions has climbed in recent years.

Colorado reported 317 prescriptions in 2022. The number rose to 398 in 2023, then 516 in 2024. It reached 580 last year.

That means the yearly count grew by about 83% in three years.

The state said it received reports that pharmacies dispensed the drugs to 261 patients in 2025. That was far below the 315 reported in 2024, even though more people received prescriptions.

The gap drew concern from Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

“An investigation needs to be done to identify what is actually happening,” Schadenberg wrote for LifeNews.

He questioned whether some pharmacies failed to report the drugs or whether the state’s records were incomplete.

The state report also shows 17 people with eating disorders or severe protein-calorie malnutrition, an eating disorder, received assisted-suicide prescriptions in 2025. Nineteen people in this group received prescriptions in 2024.

Critics say eating disorders can leave people in despair while still leaving room for treatment and recovery. A federal lawsuit filed against Colorado last year argues the law puts disabled people and people with treatable eating disorders at risk.

Colorado also made assisted suicide easier to obtain in 2024.

Gov. Jared Polis signed a law reducing the waiting period between a patient’s two oral requests from 15 days to seven days. A provider may waive the wait when the patient is not expected to live another 48 hours.

The law also lets some advanced practice registered nurses prescribe the drugs. Before the change, only doctors could do it.

Heartlander News has reported such laws often grow after states first approve them.

Additionally, Heartlander News also reported in June that the Southern Baptist Convention had renewed its opposition to assisted suicide.

Its resolution rejected “medical aid in dying” and “death with dignity” as softer labels for the practice. It called on public officials and medical workers to offer hospice care, pain care and treatment instead of lethal drugs.

The resolution said every human life has worth from conception until natural death. It also urged churches and families to care for those who are ill, disabled or afraid of becoming a burden.

Colorado’s latest figures show how once a state legalizes assisted suicide, it becomes difficult to stop.