Testing strips allow users to quickly find out whether drugs contain fentanyl, the prime driver in overdose deaths.
In an effort to help addicts find out before they use if drugs are laced with fentanyl — a dangerous, highly potent synthetic opioid that is driving overdose deaths across the country — a Dane County Board member is pushing to make free fentanyl testing strips more widely available to residents.
“One use literally can kill you,” Sup. Anthony Gray, 14th District, said of fentanyl. “This is about saving lives.”
Public Health Madison and Dane County already distributes fentanyl testing strips through its existing needle exchange program. But Gray said not many people know about that, and he’d like to see the service expanded. Gray has authored a resolution aimed at expanding the testing strip distribution, supporting a state bill that would allow for the state to chip in to buy more strips and spreading awareness about the program.
Gray
“It’s not widespread because no one else knows about it,” Gray said of the testing strip availability. “If it’s an option for people, they need to know.”
Drug dealers can add fentanyl to other drugs — such as cocaine, crack, heroin, ecstasy and methamphetamine — to make production cheaper, Gray said. But it also makes the substances far more dangerous.
