As West Virginia leads the nation in drug overdose deaths per capita, lawmakers want to legalize all types of drug testing strips, a move advocates say could save lives.
Under current state law, drug testing strips are considered “drug paraphernalia” — a statute banning things like baggies, needles and bongs. Two years ago, lawmakers passed a bill that exempted testing strips that detect fentanyl, but not any other drug.
Hard drugs — like meth, heroin and cocaine — have increasingly been cut with fentanyl over the last decade, but now a new cut is hitting the streets.
It’s called “Xylazine,” colloquially known as a “tranq.” Approved as a horse tranquilizer, it’s now been detected in 8% of fatal overdoses in 2023, according to the state Office of Drug Control Policy.
The two bills – one is on the Senate floor and another in the House Judiciary Committee awaiting further review – would exempt all test strips from the definition of paraphernalia.
Iris Sidikman, harm reduction program director for the Women’s Health Center, said they’ve gotten numerous requests from drug users for test strips to find tranq in their drugs. But Sidikman said they can’t help them because handing out those strips would be illegal.
“If people have test strips, they’re going to use them,” Sidikman said.
Sidikman said when users know what’s actually in their bag, they can be prepared for an adverse reaction.
But the problem with “tranq” is since it’s a horse tranquilizer, opioid reversal drugs like Narcan don’t work on it.
Deborah Ujevich, who works as both an advocate for the formerly incarcerated and at a Kanawha County drug detox, said throughout her experiences, both in sobriety and active addiction, she’s rarely met someone who “routinely tests their drugs.”
While she’s in favor of the bill to legalize test strips, she’s unsure how much good it will do. She said, at this point, having powerful drugs cut into the supply is a fact of life.
“People don’t even call it heroin anymore,” she said. “They call it fentanyl.”
And Robin Pollini, a public health professor at WVU, said research doesn’t necessarily show drug overdoses are reduced because of test strips, but it does work in tandem with other efforts, like handing out Narcan.
“The important thing is putting these resources in the hands that need them,” she said.