2016 Colorado Revised Statutes
Title 27 - Behavioral Health
Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Article 81 - Alcohol Abuse, Education, Prevention, and Treatment
§ 27-81-117. Criminal laws - limitations

(1) A county, municipality, or other political subdivision may not adopt or enforce a local law, ordinance, resolution, or rule having the force of law that includes drinking, being a common drunkard, or being found in an intoxicated condition as one of the elements of the offense giving rise to a criminal or civil penalty or sanction.

(2) A county, municipality, or other political subdivision may not interpret or apply any law of general application to circumvent the provisions of subsection (1) of this section.

(3) Nothing in this article affects any law, ordinance, resolution, or rule against drunken driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, or other similar offense involving the operation of a vehicle, an aircraft, or a boat or machinery or other equipment or regarding the sale, purchase, dispensing, possessing, or use of alcoholic beverages at stated times and places or by a particular class of persons.

(4) The fact that a person is intoxicated or incapacitated by alcohol shall not prevent his or her arrest or prosecution for the commission of any criminal act or conduct not enumerated in subsection (1) of this section.

(5) Nothing in this article shall be construed as a limitation upon the right of a police officer to make an otherwise legal arrest, notwithstanding the fact that the arrested person may be intoxicated or incapacitated by alcohol.