Texas Lawmakers File Bills Aiming to Legalize Fentanyl Testing Strips

A Drug Enforcement Administration chemist checks confiscated powder containing fentanyl at the DEA Northeast Regional Laboratory in New York on Oct. 8, 2019. Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images

Several Texas lawmakers have filed bills they hope will make possessing fentanyl test strips legal. Currently, the test strips are classified as drug paraphernalia under the Texas Controlled Substances Act.

“Currently, 19 states in our country allow these test strips to be used to keep their citizens safe. But Texas is not one of them,” state Rep. James Talarico told KXAN News.

Fentanyl test strips are part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s harm-reduction strategy to reduce overdose deaths. The small strips of paper can detect the presence of fentanyl in various types of drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine.

Fentanyl is 5o times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Talarico, a Democrat, filed House Bill 85 (pdf) to decriminalize the test strips. Identical bills were also filed by Democrat Rep. Sheryl Cole, Republican Rep. Tom Oliverson, and Democrat Sen. Sarah Eckhardt.

Fentanyl-related deaths have increased significantly over the last three years in Texas. In 2021, there were 1,612 deaths attributed to fentanyl, up from 886 deaths in 2020 and 317 in 2019, according to statistics from Texas Health and Human Services.

Advocates for the bill say they believe the change in the law would save lives.

“Even someone with addiction doesn’t want to die. If fentanyl strips are readily available and easily accessible, people will use them, they will test their drugs, and they will do their best to be safe,” Joseph Gorordo, executive director of Recovery Unplugged Austin, told KXAN.

In October, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott introduced the “One Pill Kills” campaign to bring awareness to the fentanyl crisis in the state.

“Fentanyl is killing innocent Texans, with well over a thousand lives lost from communities across our state due to the pervasiveness of deadly synthetic opioids,” Abbott said in a press release.

Abbott has blamed the increase in drug-related deaths on the Biden administration’s immigration policies at the southern border.

“This clandestine killer is produced and distributed by Mexican drug cartels which cunningly disguise fentanyl to look like legitimate prescription medications, and even candy to appeal to children. Fentanyl is the single deadliest drug our nation has ever encountered, and it’s a byproduct of Biden’s open border policies,” he continued.

The governor also called for new laws to be considered during the next legislative session that would classify fentanyl deaths as poisoning. If passed, such a law would allow murder charges to be brought against individuals who distribute fentanyl or fentanyl-laced drugs that cause a person’s death.

Six out of 10 fentanyl-laced fake prescriptions contain a lethal dose of fentanyl, according to the DEA.

Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett introduced a broader bill in the Texas House during the 2021 legislative session (pdf) that would “remove criminal penalties for the possession of drug paraphernalia.”

Crockett’s bill never made it to the House floor for a vote.