Re: Why Democrat Colorado's funeral homes could continue to make nightmarish headlines unless change comes

[Xavier Becerra]

On 12 Mar 2022, Lefty Lundquist <lefty_l...@ggmail.com> posted some
news:t0ig92$2rq$1...@dont-email.me:

> It's just dead pussy. It all smells the same. What's the problem
> with that?

CBS Colorado just reported on a funeral home owner who's now wanted by
police after they found dozens of cremains in a home, as well as a woman
left in a hearse since 2022, but it's hardly the first time you've heard
of this kind of crime in Colorado. Just last year we reported on funeral
home directors who are now facing charges after investigators found 190
bodies that were "improperly stored". We could continue, but we believe
we've made the point.

Javan Jones of the Colorado Funeral Directors Association said there's
one big reason Colorado continues to see things like this happen: we are
the only state that does not require funeral homeowners to be licensed
to practice the profession. A funeral home itself needs to be licensed,
but Jones said that's a low bar of entry.

"To own a funeral home, all you would have to do is file a file for a
license with DORA," Jones explained. "Pretty minimal paperwork, just to
prove that you are a funeral home."

>From there, it doesn't matter if you have 15 years of experience or
you're about to start processing the deceased for the very first time,
Colorado says you're good to go.

Jones, who owns a few funeral homes and crematoriums himself, calls this
system "hugely embarrassing."

"You're helping people in their darkest hour, in order to do that, you
have to show compassion," Jones said. "You have to show trustworthiness.
You can take advantage of them financially. Therefore, as a funeral
director, you have to have yourself on a higher pedestal to make those
decisions or help them make the decisions that are proper for the
individual at that time."

Jones believes that's a large part of where we see things fall apart
with these news stories about bodies piling up at funeral homes.

"It is my personal belief that that a lot of times people get into
situations where they can't pay for the services or they make bad
financial decisions and then there's no laws in place in order to follow
up on what's going on behind the scenes," Jones explained.

While this might seem bleak, Jones believes there is hope on the
horizon. A group of lawmakers are putting together a proposal that would
require funeral home directors to have a license (or two, depending on
if they plan on embalming bodies as well) in order to operate. He said
the only problem is, that this isn't the first time we've tried to
change this in Colorado, and last time it failed.

Jones said the majority of funeral home directors in Colorado are not
licensed, and if a law like this passed, we'd suddenly have a huge
shortage of people helping process bodies once people have passed.

"It would be crazy," Jones explained. "There would be a backlog of
decedents that we couldn't process."

That's why this new proposal would take that into account,
grandfathering in select funeral home directors who meet certain
requirements (TBD) and can show they can safely operate even though they
do not have a license in order to stop a backlog. But new regulations
need to be installed, according to Jones, who said it's gone on like
this for too long at this point.

"It's really weird to me that in order to be a plumber or an electrician
or a hairdresser, any of that, you have to have a license," Jones said.
"We're dealing embalming is a it's a surgical procedure. Right? You're
altering somebody's body, cremation. You're essentially destroying
somebody's body to ash or with fire. So you're doing a lot of major
things that you can just go pick up a Joe Schmo on the side of the
street and say, 'you're an embalmer.'"

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/why-colorados-funeral-homes-could-m
ake-nightmarish-headlines-unless-changes-comes/?intcid=CNR-02-0623