Colorado 2025 assisted suicide report. Missing data.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Alex Schadenberg

Colorado citizens legalized assisted suicide by approving Proposition 106 in 2016 which came into effect in 2017. In 2024, Colorado passed assisted suicide Bill SB 068 expanding their assisted suicide law by: permitting non-physicians to prescribe the assisted suicide poison, reducing the waiting period from 15 days to 48 hours and allowing the 48 hour waiting period to be waived if the presciber believes that the person is imminently dying.

The 2025 Colorado assisted suicide report states that:

In 2025, 580 patients received prescriptions for aid-in-dying medications under the provisions of the Colorado End-of-Life Options Act. This represents a 12.4% increase in the number of prescriptions compared to 2024. Among those prescribed aid-in-dying medication in 2025, CDPHE has received reports for 261 patients to whom aid-in-dying medication was dispensed. Also among those prescribed aid-in-dying medication, CDPHE has received death certificates for 512 patients through routine vital records registration. Note that not all of these deceased patients were dispensed aid-in- dying medication, and deaths may have been due to ingestion of aid-in-dying medication, the underlying terminal illness or condition, or other causes.

The Colorado report indicates that they do not know how many people died by ingesting the lethal poison concoction. 

The reporting is suspicious!

In 2025 there were 580 lethal poison prescriptions which was up from 516 in 2024 and 261 poison prescriptions dispensed which was down from 315 in 2024.

So the data makes it appear that more people are receiving a poison prescription for assisted suicide but fewer people are dying by assisted suicide. Based on the data, 45% of the people in 2025 who were prescribed a poison prescription obtained the prescription. The data must be wrong. 

In 2022, 317 people were prescribed poison prescriptions and 249 (79%) were dispensed. In 2023, 398 people were prescribed poison prescriptions and 316 (77%) were dispensed. 

A new trend started in 2024 with 516 poison prescriptions written and (315) (61%) prescriptions dispensed and as has already been explained, in 2025 only (45%) of the poison prescriptions were dispensed.

Unless there has been a change in the culture, it is suspicious that 45% of the 580 people who received a poison prescription received the prescription. 

• Is there a pharmacy that is dispensing assisted suicide poison and not reporting?
• Is there an underground or out-of-state source of assisted suicide poison that people obtaining with the prescription?
• Or are fewer people who have received a poison prescription having that prescription dispensed?

An investigation needs to be done to identify what is actually happening.

Let's look deeper into the data about who is being approved for assisted suicide in Colorado.

When examing the data the conditions that people have that are receiving approvals for assisted suicide remain consistent accept for two areas of concern.

The first concern is the increase in people with "other conditions" who are being approved for assisted suicide. Since legalization, 4.2% of the approvals were people with "other conditions" but in 2025 40 people 6.9% had "other conditions." The report does not indicate what is included within "other conditions."

The second concern is the increase in people with eating disorders or severe protein calorie malnutrition being approved for assisted suicide. In 2021 Colorado approved one person for assisted suicide based on a eating disorder. Eating disorders accounted for 19 assisted suicide approvals in 2024 and 17 in 2025.

Based on the likelihood that there is missing data in the report,  the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition urges the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to conduct an independent investigation into the assisted suicide data.