Texas

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A small, inexpensive item might have averted some of these deaths. Fentanyl testing strips can be used to check for the presence of the synthetic opioid. With an appearance similar to an at-home COVID-19 test, the strips are dipped in water in which a small amount of the drug has been dissolved. A line indicates if fentanyl is present.

But such testing strips are illegal in Texas. They’re considered paraphernalia, and possessing one is a Class C misdemeanor. While the Texas House passed a bill that would have legalized them in 2023, the Senate declined to vote on it.

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In 2023, the Legislature passed a law allowing prosecutors to bring murder charges in fentanyl overdose cases. Critics say this discourages people from reporting emergencies, and research shows such laws harm public health. Some who overdosed in Austin last April had shared drugs, putting survivors at risk of being charged. In 2021, the Legislature passed a good samaritan law ostensibly meant to protect people who call 911 to report an overdose. The law created a defense for people arrested for low-level possession, but it has so many caveats—you can only use it once in your life, it doesn’t apply if you’ve been convicted of a drug-related felony, you can’t use it if you’ve reported another overdose in the last 18 months—that you’d need a flow chart to understand it. Critics say the statute’s of little use.

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