Effort to prevent fentanyl overdoses stalls in Topeka

A proposal in Kansas to decriminalize fentanyl check strips — designed to stop overdoses — stalled Thursday as a Republican senator portrayed the transfer as a step towards marking the Sunflower State as some form of protected haven for drug addicts.

“One of the best warning to determine whether or not (the drug you might be utilizing) might need fentanyl in it’s don’t buy the illegal drugs,” Sen. Kellie Warren, a Leawood Republican, stated in a gathering of Republican senators on Wednesday in expressing her opposition to the the change proposed by Home Democrats.

“So , the place’s the private accountability on this coverage? And only one step nearer to offering free needles, clear needles and issues like that,” stated Warren, who’s working for legal professional normal.

Fentanyl check strips, which may detect the artificial opioid in illegal, recreational drugs, are among the many “harm reduction” strategies the White Home despatched to Congress final week to sluggish the nation’s document variety of overdose deaths — 107,000 up to now 12 months.

The disposable, at-home checks can detect fentanyl in drugs, powders and injectable medication. Research have proven them to be correct, simple to make use of and simple to share. They’re low cost — about $1 every on-line.

However they’re categorized as drug paraphernalia and thus unlawful in most states, together with Kansas and Missouri, although extra states in latest months have decriminalized them.

Rep. Jason Probst, a Hutchinson Democrat who had championed the hassle to decriminalize the check strips in Kansas, stated Thursday he doesn’t see “a transparent path ahead” for the proposal this session.

“Kansans will die from fentanyl overdoses within the coming 12 months, and their deaths will fall squarely on Sen. Kellie Warren and each Senate Republican who voted to make sure the continued criminalization of fentanyl testing strips,” Probst advised The Star on Thursday in an announcement.

“Many states have realized the necessity to undertake this inexpensive, widespread sense reform. Upwards of 70% of all overdose deaths are attributable to fentanyl. The DEA has warned about an inflow of counterfeit drugs containing fentanyl. This isn’t a partisan problem. It’s a Kansas, and a nationwide, problem.”

His first effort obtained assist from Home colleagues, together with these with connections to legislation enforcement who felt the strips may save lives and wouldn’t “create any issues” for legislation enforcement, he advised the Star earlier this month.

He anticipated resistance from fellow lawmakers who assume legalizing the check strips can assist and abet felony exercise, the identical objection legislators in different states have voiced.

“Far too typically we’re studying tales of little children, moms and dads, sisters and brothers who’re dying as a result of they’re being poisoned by fentanyl,” Probst stated Thursday.

“We had a chance this 12 months to legalize a easy software that wouldn’t price taxpayers a dime, however has confirmed to avoid wasting lives. As an alternative, a gaggle of senators with antiquated pondering and an absence of compassion sat in judgment of individuals fighting habit and determined it’s higher they need to die than to provide them a life-saving software.

“I’m typically dissatisfied with the Kansas Legislature, however I’ve by no means been extra dissatisfied than I’m with this choice. Folks will needlessly die as a result of a handful of individuals in energy determined that their hate and judgment means greater than the lives of Kansans.”

The proposal stalled on in a convention committee within the Republican-dominated Legislature. On Thursday, the invoice was stripped from a package deal that included coverage legalizing any FDA-approved medicines that include THC.

Home negotiators had sought to incorporate the testing strip coverage, citing its usefulness as a hurt discount software.

However Warren warned her Republican colleagues towards passing it, saying that making them authorized in Kansas would ship the message: “Kansas, come right here and do your unlawful medication safely. So, if that’s the state coverage that we would like …”

Slightly than vote on the invoice on the Senate flooring Wednesday, Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Louisburg Republican, led an effort to have the invoice despatched again to convention committee so the fentanyl strip coverage may very well be eliminated.

Baumgardner stated the strips are problematic as a result of they don’t present how a lot fentanyl is in a substance — simply whether or not it’s current.

Home negotiators in Thursday’s convention committee assembly reluctantly agreed to take away the coverage from the invoice.

“Fentanyl is sadly killing lots of people,” Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican, stated within the assembly. “The Senate has robust opposition to it. I’m not fairly positive why we’re no more involved about folks dying however apparently we’re not.”

Nationwide, police, well being departments and neighborhood teams that work with individuals who use medication are doling out hundreds of the check strips.

Tennessee and New Mexico have been among the many newest in March to take away the check strips from the prohibited checklist, becoming a member of Arizona, Nevada, Maine, Maryland, Wisconsin and North Carolina, amongst others.

Researchers have discovered that individuals who use the strips and discover fentanyl of their medication will take security measures, equivalent to ensuring somebody is with them once they use or having naloxone, a drugs used to cease an opioid overdose, shut by.

Some folks would possibly resolve to not take a drug if it has fentanyl in it, although fentanyl’s fast excessive is precisely what some customers search, researchers say.

“This software could be lifesaving for {the teenager} experimenting for the primary time, the person within the throes of a extreme opioid use dysfunction, the concert-goer in search of a visit, the particular person utilizing a most popular substance obtained from a brand new supply, or the person years into restoration,” researchers from Weill Cornell Drugs in New York Metropolis wrote last year in Health Affairs journal.

In Missouri, Rep. Trish Gunby, a St. Louis County Democrat, continues to be making an attempt to achieve assist for a pilot program to distribute fentanyl testing strips in communities along Interstate 70 that are hard-hit by overdoses.

She stated Thursday the undertaking wants $500,000 to $1 million. She and supporters secured $100,000 this laws session, which provides her hope. “It’s not less than an acknowledgment that it is a drawback,” she advised The Star. “There aren’t simple options, however that is one piece to the puzzle.

“And folks sometimes don’t take medication within the hopes of dying. So this protects these people.”

Gunby considers it a nonpartisan problem, necessary in each city and rural areas. She stated the proposal received consideration, significantly from colleagues in some elements of the state the place fentanyl deaths have now outpaced COVID-19 deaths.

She doesn’t assume testing strips will encourage anybody to strive medication for the primary time. However they provide customers data to allow them to use safely, or in no way.

“And the hope could be, in time, people would seek treatment,” stated Gunby. “I don’t assume anyone needs to see folks dying.”

Landwehr stated she plans to strive once more subsequent 12 months, and Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, a Baxter Springs Republican and chair of the Senate Well being and Human Providers Committee, stated he thinks the invoice may achieve extra assist as soon as it receives a listening to.

“I believe quite a lot of the issue with the testing strips is nobody within the Senate had heard it,” Hilderbrand stated.

Warren famous that the proposal had not obtained a listening to in both the Home or Senate. “It modifications, I don’t know, 5 or 6 phrases within the definition of what’s unlawful drug paraphernalia, nevertheless it sounds harmless and oh, it’s just a bit change,” she stated.

“However it’s a large change within the drug coverage of Kansas that has not obtained a listening to in both chamber.”

She acknowledged “fentanyl is an issue. … However with this alteration in coverage, are we giving up on our people that suffer from habit moderately than getting them assist?”

Researchers who’ve studied the strips say they’re invaluable instruments for connecting drug customers with neighborhood teams and different assets that may get them off medication altogether.

This story was initially printed April 28, 2022 5:07 PM.