When Denver’s city council cleared the way for a supervised drug-use site to open here in late 2018, it left one roadblock in place: The state legislature had to give its blessing first.

More than four years later, a group of Colorado lawmakers is aiming to clear that obstacle.

The proposal, introduced Friday, would let local governments decide whether to allow such sites to open in their jurisdiction, said Rep. Elisabeth Epps, a Denver Democrat and the bill’s primary sponsor. It wouldn’t set aside any money to fund any facilities, and cities would still have to provide their own approval, which Epps said is a pro-local control approach. State drug laws also wouldn’t change; any illicit substances brought into a sanctioned site would have to be acquired elsewhere.

“What it does in authorizing overdose-prevention centers is it gives our cities, our communities, our public health officials … a really critical tool, a data-driven intervention, an evidence-based way to save lives,” Epps said. “It’s been saving lives for decades in other states, other countries, and it’s overdue. Long overdue.”

The measure has the support from, among others, Sen. Kevin Priola, a Henderson Democrat known for his work on substance use and harm reduction.

Epps’s proposal promises to resurrect a broader debate: Decades into America’s drug war, how should Colorado’s policymakers address a worsening overdose crisis?

Long an objective of harm reduction advocates and a growing coalition of health officials, overdose-prevention centers — also known as safe-use or safe-consumption sites — are locations for substance users to bring their already obtained drugs and take them under supervision. They’re among the most controversial turns in America’s winding path to address substance use, with critics accusing them of facilitating illicit drug use.

A spokesman for Gov. Jared Polis echoed that concern. In a statement to the Post on Thursday, the spokesman said the governor had not seen the legislation yet but that he “would be deeply concerned with any approach that would contribute to more drug use and lawlessness.” In September, Polis’s office said he was “not open” to overdose-prevention centers here.

Denver is the only city in Colorado that’s already approved the opening of a site, Epps said. When city officials released a menu of services that could be funded through opioid settlement dollars in September, the list included an overdose-prevention center. Bob McDonald, the executive director of the city’s Department of Public Health and Environment, said at the time that he didn’t anticipate anyone seeking money for that purpose, given the standing legislative barrier.

Jamie Torres, the Denver City council president, told the Post that overdose-prevention centers “are definitely something we should explore” and that city officials would follow the proposal’s path through the legislature.

“I think Denver already kind of dipped its toe in the water, and as I said we’re ready for the conversation when it’s time to have it,” said Torres, who was not on the council when it passed the ordinance in 2018.

Shortly after, political opposition prompted Colorado lawmakers to shelve a similar proposal four years ago. Its return to the Capitol comes as state and national officials grapple with fentanyl’s ubiquitous and often lethal presence in the broader drug supply. It’s emerged as the dominant illicit opioid in recent years, part of what experts and federal investigators say is a permanent shift away from familiar street drugs toward more powerful and unpredictable synthetics.

Potent in small doses and often surreptitiously mixed with other drugs, fentanyl has increased the risk of accidental overdoses for users of all stripes and, advocates said, elevated the urgency for substantial policy interventions.

The Colorado Municipal League, which represents scores of municipalities statewide, has already committed its support to the bill, and some national organizations — like the American Medical Association — have endorsed the policy generally.

Messages sent to a coalition of law enforcement groups — representing Colorado’s police chiefs, county sheriffs and fraternal order of police — were not returned this week. A spokeswoman for the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council said in an email that the organization was withholding comment until its members could review the bill.