Fentanyl Test Strips Save Lives, Yet Most States Ban Them As “Drug Paraphernalia”

Jeffrey A. SingerToday ’s Wall Street Journalreports that recreational drug users at parties and nightclubs increasingly use fentanyl test strips before engaging in drug use. Singer ‐​songwriter Kalie Shorr, who has lost a sister and childhood friend to drug overdoses, keeps them with her in her purse and offers them to partiers and nightclub goers:Just dissolve the cocaine in a small amount of water, she tells them. Then dip in the test strip, and wait a few minutes to see if one line (positive) or two lines (negative) appear. “You can put it up your nose if you feel so inclined,” she said. “But please do this.”The article points out that, in many cases, when people use cocaine, MDMA ( “ecstasy,” “molly”), or other non‐​opioid drugs obtained on the black market, the drugs are either counterfeit and/​or contaminated with fentanyl.While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and most public health agencies endorse distributing fentanyl test strips to people who use drugs, the practice is illegal in 42 states and the District of Columbia. As Sophia Heimowitz and I explain in a policy analysis we published last June and as I explain in a Cato Daily Podcast released earlier this week, every state except Alaska prohibits the possession, manufacture, sale, or distribution of drug paraphernalia.The Food and Drug Administration approves fentanyl test strips for urine testing, and emergency rooms and urgent ca...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 19, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs