The version of the bill in the House of Representatives was suddenly amended, although the new wording had nothing to do with dairy products. The language calls for the legalization of the use of tapes that test drugs for fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that feeds a wave of fatal overdoses in Georgia and the United States. The change, said Sen. Jen Jordan, a Democrat from Atlanta who sponsored it, “is a sensible decision to save lives.”
The revised milk bill was passed by a majority on the last day of the General Assembly session. Unless Republican Gov. Brian Kemp vetoes the bill, Georgia will join a growing list of states decriminalizing the use of fentanyl test strips as the drug’s scourge spreads across the nation.
The governors of New Mexico and Wisconsin signed bills this year allowing test strips in those states, and the Tennessee and Alabama legislatures recently passed similar legislation. In Pennsylvania, although state law bans test strips, the mayors of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have ordered bans on prosecuting those who own them. The state’s attorney general said he would not charge people for the test strips. Alaska’s public health officials, horrified by the wave of overdose deaths, began handing out free test strips. A vending machine in Ohio offers devices for detecting fentanyl along with naloxone, a drug that reverses overdose.
But the Florida legislature has opposed a bill this year that will decriminalize test strips. Fentanyl testing devices – banned by drug laws decades ago – remain illegal in about half of the states, say drug policy experts.
However, many public health and addiction experts are promoting rapid testing devices as a tactic known as “harm reduction” tactics to help prevent deaths from overdoses of illicit drugs that consumers may not be aware are supplied with fentanyl.
“We hope that all states will realize that the dangers of contamination are so great and that fentanyl test strips allow a person taking the drug to know if there is fentanyl,” said Dr. Nora Volkov, director of the National Institute. for drug abuse at the National Institutes of Health. Street versions of fentanyl, an approved painkiller that is manufactured illegally, largely come to the United States from Mexico. Fentanyl is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. It is usually found in what is sold as heroin – it often takes its place. It can also be mixed with cocaine, methamphetamine and counterfeit street pills sold as opioids – substances that many buyers do not expect to contain fentanyl. The proliferation of fentanyl has helped lead to a staggering increase in drug overdose deaths. Synthetic opioids – including fentanyl – accounted for about two-thirds of drug overdose deaths in the United States during the 12-month period ending in November 2021. And three-quarters of cocaine overdose deaths last year were related to fentanyl. said Volkov.
“Fentanyl is so powerful that it can stop your breathing at very low doses,” she said.
The fentanyl epidemic also “exacerbates racial inequalities,” Volkov added. Between 2019 and 2021, fentanyl overdose deaths tripled among teenagers – and quadrupled among black teenagers, according to an analysis by data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by the Families Against Fentanyl advocacy group. This month, the Drug Enforcement Administration sent a letter to federal, state and local law enforcement officials warning of a national jump in fentanyl-related mass overdoses. “Fentanyl is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate,” said DEA administrator Ann Milgram. “Already this year, numerous events with mass overdoses have led to dozens of overdoses and deaths.
Test strips are cheap and cost about $ 1. The drug user can take a small amount of the substance, add water and dip a strip briefly in the solution. If a red stripe appears on the strip, fentanyl is present; two stripes indicate that none of this drug has been found.
The disadvantage is that the test strips do not measure the amount of fentanyl in the drug.
However, the tapes are effective in detecting “very small amounts of fentanyl,” said Brandon Marshall, an epidemiologist at Brown University, part of a team that studied illegal drug users and devices on Rhode Island. Many of the participants who tried the tapes, Marshall said, discarded the substance if fentanyl was present, used the drug with someone else or had naloxone during use. A similar study of intravenous drug users in North Carolina found that 3 out of 4 people said that fentanyl strips made them feel better able to protect themselves from overdose. In South Carolina, which provided fentanyl test strips, the state sent an anonymous study to anyone who received them. Sarah Goldsby, director of the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse in South Carolina, said the survey found that people who used the tapes reported fewer drugs, with some choosing not to use the drug at all and that they feel safer in preventing overdose.
Test strips, Marshall added to Brown, “will not be a silver bullet to deal with the overdose crisis. But they can be an important tool to help people stay safe.”
In Georgia, where the test bill awaits approval by the governor, public health officials said fentanyl overdose deaths have jumped since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, doubling between May 1, 2020 and April 30, 2021. compared to the same period in 2019 and 2020
And fentanyl overdoses have recently risen in Savannah, Georgia, according to Dr. Jay Goldstein, medical director of the emergency department at Memorial Health. He said many overdose patients say they are surprised by the effectiveness of the drug they have consumed, but fears that giving it to tapes will not stop their use.
“It’s sad to say, but some users want fentanyl in their medicines because it gives them a higher level of intensity, although the risk of collapse and burns is much worse,” he said.
Current drug laws could discourage states or organizations from applying for subsidies to purchase test strips or set up distribution programs, said John Woodruff, senior legal counsel for the Association for Legislative Analysis and Public Policy. But in many states that have not decriminalized the tapes, the people who hold the documents are not persecuted. In Georgia, “people can be charged, but they are not generally prosecuted, especially if they are test strips,” said Pete Scandalakis, executive director of the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, who backed the amendment to the test strips. Despite the current ban in Georgia, the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition said it was distributing tapes to individual drug users and other members of the community.
Meanwhile, families in Georgia who have seen loved ones die from fentanyl overdoses are supporting making test strips more accessible.
Daryn Barry of Fayette County, a suburb of Atlanta, lost her son to a combined dose of heroin and fentanyl seven years ago. She set up a non-profit foundation named after Ryan Bar to educate people about addiction.
Bar said he believes test strips can save lives.
“Why don’t you have the fentanyl strips?” She said. “Cocaine or the counterfeit pill may contain fentanyl. It can kill you once. If they had a test strip, they might not have taken it.”
KHN South Carolina correspondent Lauren Saussure contributed to this article.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues. Along with policy analysis and surveys, KHN is one of the three main operational programs of KFF (Family Foundation Kaiser). KFF is a gifted non-profit organization that provides information on the nation’s health issues.
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