Will Dan Patrick’s Senate Stymie Fentanyl Test Strip Legalization (Again)?

On April the Texas House voted - for a bill that would have legalized strips that test for the presence of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl only for the regulation to die without a hearing in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee Since then at least Texans have died from opioid overdoses according to state input A little more than a year after that House vote in April at least nine people that s the official count though the Texas Observer unveiled it could have been as various as died in just a scarce days in and around Austin casualties of a tainted batch of crack cocaine that caused dozens of fentanyl overdoses across the city As the Observer shared earlier this year legalized testing strips could have detected the presence of fentanyl in the adulterated crack saving lives Now this April the House unanimously passed House Bill a similar measure that would legalize strips that check for fentanyl as well as xylazine a non-opioid tranquilizer that has been exposed in the U S drug supply That law is now exactly where its predecessor died the Senate Criminal Justice Committee chaired by Senator Pete Flores a Pleasonton Republican Its supporters on both sides of the aisle are anxiously waiting to see if it fares better this session Current state law makes it a misdemeanor to possess any materials for drug checking That can include things like advanced laboratory equipment but advocates have focused on strips little pieces of paper that look like take-home COVID tests and alert to the presence of certain drugs They re tools These are testing strips They re not expensive They re incredibly effective and they re drastically needed in our area revealed Eli Cortez an organizer with Vocal-TX an organization that advocates for amendment on a wide range of issues including the war on drugs Having testing equipment so people know what s in the substance they re about to use is just so significant right now A test strip on a black background Gabriella Angotti-Jones As the Observer previously broadcasted Texas has been slow to embrace practices associated with harm reduction a broadly defined term for helping people who use drugs without stigmatizing or imposing strict parameters while also involving drug users in planning and implementation The Observer s inspection of the April overdoses in Austin determined that a great number of of those affected did not know they were consuming fentanyl Though particular Texas harm reduction organizations quietly distribute testing strips their prohibition here limits what funds can be used to purchase them and cabinet agencies like Austin-Travis County EMS which was instrumental in the response to the tainted crack cannot distribute them And in an atmosphere in which drug use is highly stigmatized local authorities did not share with the community information that experts announced could have prevented additional overdoses Though Texas has lagged behind other states in facilitating access to naloxone the overdose reversal drug commonly sold as Narcan the state cabinet along with Austin and Travis County has in the last few days ramped up distribution Its widespread availability undoubtedly saved lives in Austin The year the testing strip bill failed was the deadliest for overdoses in Texas history More than people perished of overdoses from all types of drugs according to state details Researchers say Texas presumably undercounts overdose deaths because largest part counties rely on poorly trained justices of the peace to handle death investigations Last year Texas partly followed the national trend of overdoses decreasing From July to July Centers for Infection Control numbers manifested overdoses nationally falling nearly percent whereas Texas saw a smaller percent decrease The liberal bastions of Oregon and Washington which have taken less punitive approaches to addressing overdoses saw slight increases in overdoses Texas leaders have attributed this to the tough-on-drugs approach they ve embraced But researchers and harm reductionists say that when a new drug hits the region in a region overdoses almost inevitably spike then recede as strength workers and people who use drugs adapt They say Texas is lagging behind the rest of the country to implement policies like the testing strip bill that would save lives November to November CDC numbers show Texas has made more progress reducing overdoses with a nearly percent decrease but it still didn t keep up with the nationwide decrease of percent Washington and Oregon meanwhile demonstrated critical turnarounds with decreases of and percent The prevalence of naloxone and people adjusting how they use drugs are likely part of why overdoses are falling A darker explanation looms as well Various people who were majority of at threat of a fentanyl overdose have passed away People are getting better and better over time at safer using practices mentioned Claire Zagorski a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin who s worked in harm reduction for years And the denominator is changing People are dying and we have fewer people being exposed to these high-risk drugs That means the narrowness of Oliverson s bill may limit its utility Over the years this is going to keep changing Zagorski mentioned It s going to be less fentanyl and more something else But the bill s supporters say giving people who use drugs and community wellness workers a better idea of what s in the supply will still save lives even if specific would like to see all forms of drug checking legalized Fentanyl remains a huge issue especially for people who don t regularly use opioids And while xylazine is a big concern in other states researchers in Texas don t believe it s widespread here yet What the testing strip bill s chances of passing are this time around is unclear Lege watchers say that chosen Republicans in the Senate generally run as a tight ship by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick remain opposed to any provision around drug use that isn t enforcement-focused Flores the Criminal Justice Committee chairman hasn t given a hearing to an identical Senate bill referred to his committee back in February even though it has bipartisan backing One of that bill s author s is Senator Bob Hall an Edgewood Republican who rose out of the Tea Party movement in Oliverson an anesthesiologist and the provision s House shepherd two sessions in a row has staked out far-right positions on other issues But their conservative bona fides haven t been enough to get their bills a hearing before Flores who didn t respond to requests for comment Obviously people use drugs Oliverson revealed during an April hearing of the House Community Physical condition Committee I wish they didn t I want to be clear that I m not somebody who supports the idea of illicit drug use but we live in a country we live in a world where drug addiction is a mental illness and I want everyone to get remedy for it But I can t treat you when you re 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