Last month I reported on state lawmakers’ growing appreciation for fentanyl test strips as a valuable harm reduction tool to help nonmedical drug users learn if what they are about to consume contains fentanyl. Unfortunately, as Sophia Heimowitz and I explained in a June 2022 policy analysis, every state but Alaska prohibits the possession, sale, use, or distribution of drug paraphernalia. And most states consider fentanyl test strips, a product used to test illicit substances, as forbidden drug paraphernalia.
In January, Ohio took fentanyl test strips off its illegal drug paraphernalia list. Today we learn that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed into law a bill legalizing fentanyl test strips. Similar bills are moving through Hawaii, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Montana legislatures. Last December, Texas Governor Greg Abbott reversed his opposition and endorsed legalizing fentanyl test strips. A bill is making its way through the legislature in Austin. Hopefully, the states where fentanyl test strips remain illegal will jump on the bandwagon soon.
Most of the bills legalize strips for testing fentanyl and other illicit drugs. This is good because the Canadian company that makes fentanyl test strips also makes xylazine test strips.
The veterinary tranquilizer xylazine—nicknamed “tranq” by nonmedical drug users—is being increasingly added to fentanyl and other black market drugs to enhance the potency of those drugs (the iron law of prohibition at work), and overdoses from xylazine cannot be reversed with naloxone.
It is gratifying to see state lawmakers begin to see the value and realism of harm‐reduction strategies. But ideally, all states should emulate Alaska and repeal the drug paraphernalia laws. That would remove obstacles that prevent harm reduction organizations from helping to save their neighbors’ lives.
