WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers is working to address the staggering number of opioid overdoses nationwide, as two-thirds of drug overdose deaths last year were caused by synthetic opioids like fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Thursday, Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas; Chris Coons, D-Del.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; Bill Cassidy, R-La.; and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced legislation to expand access to fentanyl test strips. The bill, first obtained by NBC News, would clarify the federal drug paraphernalia statute to exclude the test strips, potentially lifesaving tools that remain criminalized in many states.
“This legislation would help prevent deaths due to fentanyl poisoning by giving people the tools to identify it, and I urge my colleagues to pass it without delay,” Cornyn said. His state, Texas, has experienced one of the nation’s worst rates of fentanyl overdoses, which skyrocketed nearly 600% over the last year, according to the state's Department of Health and Human Services.
The Fentanyl Safe Testing and Overdose Prevention Act would also apply to test strips for xylazine, a powerful animal tranquilizer approved by the Food and Drug Administration only for veterinary use. Officials have warned the public that the sedative, which has been found to be mixed with fentanyl in several states, can create a deadly drug cocktail.
Within minutes, test strips can help users identify whether drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine or heroin contain traces of fentanyl or xylazine before they are consumed. This month, Florida became the latest state to decriminalize the paper tests in a bid to reduce growing overdose deaths.
This summer, Delaware began distributing new test strips to identify both substances after it decriminalized the strips in 2021. “The fentanyl and xylazine crisis is inflicting unspeakable harm on communities in Delaware and across America. We must promote the use of tools that can prevent unnecessary tragedies,” Coons said.
Critics argue that testing for fentanyl could enable drug use, but proponents equate the strips with Narcan, a widely accepted medicine that rapidly reverses opioid overdoses.
Cotton said the bill by itself wouldn’t solve the drug crisis, “but it will help prevent overdoses by people who didn’t realize fentanyl was in the drugs they took.”
Reps. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, and Lance Gooden, R-Texas, announced a similar measure in May. As a member of the Texas Legislature last year, Crockett pushed to remove criminal penalties for possessing drug paraphernalia, including fentanyl test strips, which are criminalized under state law. Despite support from both sides of the aisle and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who reversed his opposition to the test strips, the bill failed to make its way through the full Legislature for consideration after it overwhelmingly passed in the House.
The congressional bill seeks to clarify existing federal law, and supporters hope that if it is passed, it would send a signal to states who are wary of decriminalizing the test strips.
“There is more than one way to decrease the number of people dying from fentanyl,” Cassidy said in a news release. “This is one of them. Let’s use every tool that we have.”
