Simple, cheap fentanyl test strips save lives. Why do Kansas and Missouri ban them?
As the Kansas and Missouri legislative sessions come to a close, there’s at least one more matter lawmakers in both states should attend to. They could save lives with tiny strips of paper that can detect the presence of fentanyl in recreational drugs.
Fentanyl test strips are designed to prevent people from overdosing on illegal recreational drugs that have been spiked with potentially fatal amounts of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Overdose deaths have risen to well over 100,000 a year in the United States. Synthetic opioids — primarily fentanyl — are the primary reason for the overall increase in total drug overdose deaths, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Police and health departments around the country are responding to this crisis by giving out thousands of these fentanyl test strips.
But in some states, including Kansas and Missouri, the strips are considered drug paraphernalia and are not legal. Now there are proposals before both state legislatures to decriminalize them. This is not a partisan issue, and no one should oppose this move.
Former U.S. attorney for Kansas Stephen R. McAllister made a plea in an email to lawmakers for passage of what he rightly called this “pending legislation that will save lives.”
“We are not talking about heroin addicts in back alleys, but teenagers who obtain a pill online thinking it is Percocet or OxyContin only to take it and die because it is laced with fentanyl.”
Last October, Levi Jennings, an Independence high school student, came home from a night out with friends, took half of a pill — maybe Xanax or OxyContin — then went to sleep and never woke up. The 16-year old was supposed to start a new job the next day. Jennings was one of 12 Kansas City area teens whose lives were lost to opioids between January and November of that year.
Fentanyl is so dangerous, police say, that even its dust — or as little as .25 milligrams — can kill. Vince Ortega, director of the Jackson County anti-drug abuse initiative COMBAT, has said that a fentanyl-laced pill “can be every bit as deadly as biting down on a cyanide capsule.”
Police have warned schools, parents and young people to be on the lookout for counterfeit pills that may contain fentanyl, made by drug dealers who must not care who they kill. Law enforcement agencies say they are confiscating as many of these drugs as fast as they can.
But people are still dying and fentanyl testing strips, which are accurate, effective and cheap — only about $1 a strip — would be of enormous help in preventing more deaths.
“Supporting the decriminalization of these strips will not facilitate drug abuse,” McAllister said in his email. “They will save the lives of Kansas teenagers, family members, and relatives.”
He urged lawmakers to take action, and so do we: Don’t let this session end without passing this lifesaving legislation.
If you or a loved one is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMSHA confidential hotline, also known as the Treatment Referral Routing Service, at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).