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

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On April 11, 2023, the Texas House voted 143-2 for a bill that would have legalized strips that test for the presence of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, only for the legislation to die without a hearing in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

Since then, at least 3,200 Texans have died from opioid overdoses, according to state data. A little more than a year after that House vote, in April 2024, at least nine people—that’s the official count, though the Texas Observer found it could have been as many as 12—died in just a few days in and around Austin, victims of a tainted batch of crack cocaine that caused dozens of fentanyl overdoses across the city. As the Observer reported earlier this year, legalized testing strips could have detected the presence of fentanyl in the adulterated crack, saving lives.

Now, this April 23, the House unanimously passed House Bill 1644, a similar measure that would legalize strips that check for fentanyl as well as xylazine, a non-opioid tranquilizer that has been found in the U.S. drug supply. That legislation 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 community,” said Eli Cortez, an organizer with Vocal-TX, an organization that advocates for reform 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 important right now.”

As the Observer previously reported, 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 investigation of the April 2024 overdoses in Austin found that many of those affected did not know they were consuming fentanyl. Though some Texas harm reduction organizations quietly distribute testing strips, their prohibition here limits what funds can be used to purchase them, and government 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 officials did not share with the public information that experts said 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 government, along with Austin and Travis County, has recently ramped up distribution. Its widespread availability undoubtedly saved lives in Austin.

The year the testing strip bill failed, 2023, was the deadliest for overdoses in Texas history: More than 5,000 people perished of overdoses from all types of drugs, according to state data. (Researchers say Texas probably undercounts overdose deaths because most 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 2023 to July 2024, Centers for Disease Control numbers showed overdoses nationally falling nearly 17 percent, whereas Texas saw a smaller 4 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 market in a region, overdoses almost inevitably spike, then recede as health 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 2023 to November 2024 CDC numbers show Texas has made more progress reducing overdoses with a nearly 15 percent decrease, but it still didn’t keep up with the nationwide decrease of 26 percent. Washington and Oregon, meanwhile, showed significant turnarounds with decreases of 12 and 20 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: Many people who were most at risk of a fentanyl overdose have passed away.

“People are getting better and better over time at safer using practices,” said 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 said. “It’s going to be less fentanyl and more something else.” 

But the bill’s supporters say giving people who use drugs and public health workers a better idea of what’s in the supply will still save lives, even if some 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 problem 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 some Republicans in the Senate—generally run as a tight ship by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick—remain opposed to any legislation 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 support. One of that bill’s author’s is Senator Bob Hall, an Edgewood Republican who rose out of the Tea Party movement in 2014. Oliverson, an anesthesiologist and the legislation’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 said during an April hearing of the House Public Health 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 treatment for it. But I can’t treat you when you’re dead.”

The post Will Dan Patrick’s Senate Stymie Fentanyl Test Strip Legalization (Again)? appeared first on The Texas Observer.

This post was originally authored and published by Jason Buch from the , a nonprofit investigative news outlet and magazine. Sign up for their , or follow them on and .