Here & Now

Fentanyl Test Strips Get Decriminalized in Wisconsin

Frederica Freyberg:

In other news, the scourge, trauma and cost of drug overdose deaths in Wisconsin prompted the passage of a new state law this month that legalizes a screening test formerly considered illegal drug paraphernalia. The tests are designed to detect the deadly additive fentanyl, and in Milwaukee, for those in public health, their new legal use is heaven-sent.

Rafael Mercado:

It’s a blessing. It is a blessing that these are now legal.

Frederica Freyberg:

Rafael Mercado is a community outreach worker.

Rafael Mercado:

What I do is we come out and I have packages similar to this, and we hand them out.

Frederica Freyberg:

Who distributes fentanyl test strips in Milwaukee, including to people in his own neighborhood on the south side of the city.

Rafael Mercado:

Take it out, if you use the drug, test it, drop it in the urine, and just like a pregnancy test, it will give you one line, two lines, and then one that will be higher.

Frederica Freyberg:

Mercado lives in the hot spot for overdose deaths in Milwaukee County. A county that saw more than 7,000 ODs in 2021, more than 600 of them fatal. 80% of overdose deaths are caused by fentanyl, a powerful opioid mixed into other drugs by dealers to increase potency, and that even in trace amounts can be deadly.

Rafael Mercado:

They’re not trying to kill their selves. They’re trying to mask a pain.

Frederica Freyberg:

The problem is so commonplace that even as we talked to Mercado outside the 16th Street clinic in Milwaukee, a person overdosed down the block. Paramedics revived him.

Michael Lappen:

The overdose deaths have increased for several years in a row where we’ve had a new record. So we are just at unprecedented numbers.

Frederica Freyberg:

Michael Lappen is administrator for the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division.

Rafael Mercado:

I said you’re good to walk.

Frederica Freyberg:

And partners with Mercado who hits the streets.

Rafael Mercado:

You dip it in, wait about five minutes. So if you get two lines, it’s a negative. One, the high is positive. They just got me handing out more fentanyl strips. I’m handing out more of them fentanyl testing strips.

Frederica Freyberg:

Mercado says the idea is for people to use very small amounts of their heroin, test, and have the emergency OD reviving spray Narcan at the ready. And so how important is the legalization of these fentanyl test strips?

Michael Lappen:

Well, it’s very important because it allows people to make informed decisions about what they’re ingesting. So if someone tests their drugs and they identify fentanyl, they know perhaps I should have naloxone or Narcan available. Maybe they use with a partner so they can keep each other safe. Maybe they reduce their dosage, and maybe they don’t use it at all.

Frederica Freyberg:

As an ambulance tears away, carrying an OD victim, what about the question of whether handing out packages of test strips and Narcan encourages drug use?

Michael Lappen:

Well, people say that. You know, folks have said that all these harm reduction initiatives just enable drug use. I completely disagree. I believe that what we’re doing is we’re maintaining safety, keeping people alive long enough for them to get into recovery.

Frederica Freyberg:

Wisconsin legalized fentanyl test strips in mid-March. Before the law changed, they were illegal, considered drug paraphernalia. Milwaukee County started distributing 1600 of them, with more to come.

Michael Lappen:

The theme is, whatever we can do to keep people alive, we want to do that in our community.

Rafael Mercado:

You know what it’s like for a mom to have to bury her son or daughter or their loved one, their husband? I’m not enabling nobody. I’m saving their life.

Frederica Freyberg:

Milwaukee County expects to receive a larger stock of the test strips from state funds coming from a settlement in a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers.