Two bills — House Bill 1053 and Senate Bill 96 — have been filed this session to decriminalize drug test strips. The small pieces of paper detect the presence of certain drugs in a supply so a user can take steps to prevent an overdose. The strips are seen as particularly pressing when it comes to fentanyl, which carries a deadly dose that can lay on the tip of a pencil. Fentanyl alone accounted for 648 overdose deaths in Marion County in 2022, making up nearly 81% of total drug intoxication deaths that year.
How Do People Take Fentanyl?
In recent years, fentanyl has been increasingly found in other illicit drugs such as counterfeit pills, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. And considering the potency of fentanyl, even a small amount can be deadly. This has led to a sharp increase in overdose deaths related to fentanyl use, as many people may not realize they are consuming the drug.
You can get them free through some outreach programs, such as needle exchanges or overdose prevention programs. According to the CDC, there were over 5,000 drug overdose cases in Texas between October 2021 and October 2022. Fatalities involving fentanyl in Texas increased 399%, from 333 deaths in 2019 to 1,662 deaths in 2021. And as mentioned earlier, most people who ingested “their substance of choice” had no idea it was laced with the synthetic opioid.
Many people worry that calling emergency services for someone taking an illegal drug will get them in trouble, but this is not true. Many states have laws that protect not only the person who calls for help, but also the person overdosing from legal trouble. Once you’ve been taking fentanyl for a while, your body gets used to it and stopping can be very hard. It can be hard to function without the drug in your system. Most people need help from a health professional or program to successfully quit. Fentanyl acts like many other opioids such as morphine and heroin.
When used as a sedative, drug administration is most commonly via a drip. Lastly, fentanyl use can extend to the treatment of epilepsy. That is, in combination with certain neuroleptic medications as part of therapeutic neuroleptanalgesia. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is available as a powder or it can be pressed into pills. It’s commonly sold as heroin and may be an accidental contaminant in drugs like cocaine. This is because a person has no way of knowing how much fentanyl or what type of fentanyl is in their drug.
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This more recent version of fentanyl comes in bright colors. People who make it mix it with dyes and either press it into multicolored pills or sell it in a colored powder form. While some opioids come directly from the plant, fentanyl is made in a lab by scientists using the same chemical structure. Overdose prevention is a CDC priority that impacts families and communities. Drug overdose is a leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.
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Fentanyl + alcohol may increase the risk of respiratory depression and possible overdose. Fentanyl comes as a lozenge on a handle, a sublingual (underneath the tongue) tablet, and a buccal (between the gum and cheek) tablet to dissolve in the mouth. Fentanyl is used as needed to treat breakthrough pain but not more often than four times a day. Follow the directions on your prescription label carefully, and ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain any part you do not understand.
- Then, take the strip out of the water and place it onto a flat surface for 2-5 minutes.
- A dose of only 100 micrograms can produce equivalent analgesia to approximately 10 mg of morphine.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that fentanyl is odorless and tasteless, and there is no visible way of knowing if or how much fentanyl a pill contains.
- There is no set amount that is considered lethal because how the drug affects you depends on several factors such as your body size and tolerance.
- These strips work differently than the older, dark blue strips.
Fentanyl is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. BTNX has test strips available for both xylazine and nitazene. The strips are a little more expensive, around $3.00 per test, but are a valuable tool moving forward in the world of harm reduction and preventing accidental overdoses.
Protect Your People
Any provider can prescribe buprenorphine, a lifesaving medication that has been shown to reduce the risk of dying from overdose by more than 50%. Fentanyl misuse can lead to unconsciousness, compromise respiratory function and lead to overdose resulting in death. You may be able to get free fentanyl test strips at your local health department. You can also buy them online or get them at places that offer harm reduction services. Fentanyl test strips are a great way to help prevent accidental overdoses and their legalization here in Florida should encourage their use. However, fentanyl is not the only substance causing concern.
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If you do not have a take-back program nearby or one that you can access promptly, then flush the fentanyl down the toilet so that others will not take it. Throw away the remaining handles in a place that is out of the reach of children and pets, and flush the toilet twice when it contains up to five lozenges. Dispose of unneeded tablets by removing them from the packaging and flushing them down the toilet. Throw the remaining fentanyl packaging or cartons into a trash container; do not flush these items down the toilet. Call your pharmacist or the manufacturer if you have questions or need help disposing of unneeded medication.
Are Fentanyl Testing Strips Banned In Texas?
HIV and hepatitis C testing along with wound care are also offered. Naloxone is distributed for free to help prevent overdoses. Fentanyl is typically administered intravenously (IV), intramuscularly (IM), transdermally (TD) as skin patches, intranasally (IN) in the form of a volatile nasal spray, and intrathecally (IT). It is also available as a buccal soluble thin film, which can dissolve in the mouth, similar to the sublingual tablets. However, in contrast to other opiates, it is less common to find forms of synthetic drugs such as oral tablets or powders. The transdermal patch is for the long-term management of pain.
- Substance use can quickly escalate and take over life, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
- Find a kit online at overdoselifeline.org/naloxone-indiana-distribution/.
- Without testing, it’s nearly impossible to tell whether drugs are free of fentanyl.
- If you take fentanyl without knowing it, you might get a much higher dose of opioids than your body can handle, putting you at risk for an overdose.
Resources For Those Using Or Abusing Opioids
A similar percentage chose to use their drugs with other people (instead of alone) so someone would be around to call 911 or give them naloxone (Narcan), if needed, to reverse an opioid overdose. Fentanyl test strips are small pieces of paper that can detect the presence of fentanyl in many kinds of drugs, including methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and pills. Harm reduction organizations generally offer fentanyl test strips. The National Harm Reduction Coalition website can help you find fentanyl strips nearby. Health care providers, substance use disorder programs or Bridge Clinics, and local community health centers also may be able to provide them or help people find them. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that deaths and overdoses have occurred in people using both the brand-name product Duragesic and generic transdermal fentanyl patches.
Therapeutic Effects
Because fentanyl is so potent, a very small dose — the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says just two milligrams — can be lethal. High-potency opioids such as fentanyl, oxycodone (Oxycontin, Roxicodone) and methadone (Methadose, Methadone HCl Intensol) typically have more-serious risks. Illegal fentanyl can be used in the same ways as prescribed fentanyl. Some people who misuse fentanyl remove the gel contents of a fentanyl patch and then inject or ingest the contents.
Fentanyl test strips aren’t legal everywhere because some states consider them to be drug paraphernalia (items you need to do drugs). But a growing number of health and public policy experts are supporting their use along with other harm-reduction strategies. In many states, test strips could be classified as drug paraphernalia, which advocates in Indiana say has prevented some people from carrying them under fear of prosecution. Test strips, on the other hand, are used before drug use to check a supply for the presence of fentanyl. For many people, the best solution for opioid use disorder is medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). Thousands of people have their lives back thanks to our work.
Detection For Harm Reduction Purposes
Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is illegal and can be sold as powder, nasal spray or pills that look like other prescription opioids. Fentanyl can be known by street names such as Apache, China Girl, Dance Fever or Goodfellas. It’s one of the most common drugs involved in overdose deaths. You can become dependent on fentanyl even if you’re taking it as directed by a doctor. This means you’ll experience withdrawal symptoms once you stop taking it. The large number of overdose deaths involving fentanyl highlights the need to ensure people most at risk can access care, as well as the need to expand prevention and response activities.
