Calif. pays for fentanyl tests

As the death toll from the nation’s opioid crisis swells, California officials have launched an experiment: paying for people to test their drugs for fentanyl.

Fentanyl, an opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin, is responsible for a growing number of overdose deaths each year. Typically manufactured as a white powder, it can be mixed into other drugs such as heroin and cocaine without the user knowing, but with extreme consequences.

“Fentanyl can kill you at first use — that’s why there’s incredible urgency,” said Dr. Kelly Pfeifer, who studies the opioid epidemic at the California Health Care Foundation.

Experts are unsure why fentanyl is showing up in so many drugs, and it appears to be happening more often. Reported deaths from fentanyl in California tripled between 2016 and last year.

Amid the fentanyl epidemic, test strips that detect the opioid are growing more popular not only in California but nationwide, with New York state and several overdose prevention programs across the country already using them.

But experts warn that they’re an imperfect solution. The tests haven’t been approved by federal regulators, and some experts have concerns about the accuracy of the results. Some public officials are reluctant to offer them.

Daniel Ciccarone, a University of California-San Francisco professor who studies heroin use, said the tests’ popularity, despite limited evidence of how well they work, underscores the severity of the opioid epidemic and the problems with fentanyl.

“The crisis that is fentanyl is rapidly evolving and increasingly deadly, and it hasn’t turned around,” Ciccarone said. “I just see desperation.”

In May last year, the California public health department began paying for needle exchanges to distribute the strips to drug users.

The tests, which are manufactured by a Canadian company and cost $1 each, function similarly to a pregnancy test. Users mix a little bit of a drug with water then dip the strip in for several seconds. Five minutes later, they’ll see their result.

One line, there’s fentanyl. Two lines, there’s not.

Michael Marquesen, executive director of needle exchange Los Angeles Community Health Project, said the tests have shown that 40 percent of the heroin in Hollywood contains fentanyl. Dealers sometimes add fentanyl to heroin to provide a stronger high, experts say, but too much can quickly stop someone’s breathing.

Marquesen said that giving out the strips allows him to warn people about the dangers of fentanyl and also teach them how to use naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose.