Drug overdose deaths have risen sharply in Pennsylvania in recent times, and the Basic Meeting is taking harm-reduction efforts extra significantly than prior to now.

On Monday, the Home unanimously handed a invoice, HB1393, that will legalize fentanyl take a look at strips for private use so drug customers may know the purity of their substances. The strips are at the moment categorized as drug paraphernalia and unlawful.

Pennsylvania is third within the nation for overdose drug deaths, with 5,360 individuals dying in 2021, as The Heart Sq. beforehand reported. The demise fee as a consequence of drug overdoses has dramatically jumped from 26.2 per 100,000 individuals in 2015 to 42.4 in 2020.

A report from the lawyer basic’s workplace blames the rise on fentanyl displacing heroin within the commonwealth’s drug provide, whilst seizures of fentanyl have massively elevated. The report referred to as for legalizing take a look at strips in addition to extra remedy applications.

That harm-reduction strategy is shared by Home legislators.

“By permitting those that are within the grip of dependancy to own and use take a look at strips to guarantee their very own security, we can forestall overdoses,” Rep. Jim Struzzi, R-Indiana, wrote in a legislative memo. “Because the opioid epidemic reaches catastrophic ranges in Pennsylvania, we should proceed to make legal guidelines and insurance policies that work to avoid wasting lives.”

Legalizing take a look at strips has change into extra widespread in states struggling to tamp down overdose deaths.

New Mexico and Wisconsin legalized them in 2022, as Kaiser Well being Information reported, and the Tennessee and Alabama legislatures have accredited related payments. Take a look at strips stay unlawful for private use in about half of U.S. states.

Some research have discovered that utilizing fentanyl take a look at strips causes customers to alter how a lot of a drug they take and lowers the percentages of an overdose.

The invoice awaits additional motion within the Senate.