AUSTIN (KXAN) — After failing to make it to the governor’s desk last legislative session, Texas lawmakers are re-filing bills to decriminalize fentanyl test strips. Those strips can alert drug users to the presence of fentanyl which is often more potent and deadly than other drugs.
HB 253, filed by Rep. James Talarico, D-Williamson County, would decriminalize the test strips. Sen. Sarah Eckhardt and Sen. Molly Cook, both Democrats, filed a companion bill in the Senate — SB 362. Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Harris County, said he will also re-file his decriminalization bill this session with few changes from last session.
“There are only five states that still outlaw these test trips, and Texas is one of them. So we’ve got to change this so that we can start saving lives here in our state,” Talarico said.
Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Hays County, also filed a similar bill Tuesday.
“We have a responsibility to try and save lives,” Zwiener said. “Just this year in my district there have been six fentanyl poisonings in Hays County and four of those resulted in deaths. Those are four people who should be with us today.”
Stephanie Roe, who lost her son, Tucker, to fentanyl poisoning and has since successfully pushed changes to Texas law, said on KXAN’s ‘State of Texas’ that her nonprofit is prioritizing the decriminalization of the strips again.
“We really want that to pass this session. We were disappointed last session that that did not get passed, and we’re working on several others [changes] as well. We will not stop. We are relentless,” Roe said.
Previous legislative efforts fall short
Despite bipartisan support, bills addressing fentanyl test strips haven’t made it to the governor’s desk. Last legislative session, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he supported decriminalization.
“So that people will be able to test drugs at home to know whether or not it might be laced with fentanyl,” Abbott said then, after visiting with University of Houston researchers who developed a fentanyl vaccine.
“While we’ve seen some bipartisan support in Congress and in the Texas Legislature for supporting fentanyl testing strips, we’ve never made it past the legislative line in either forum. And we need in Congress, and in the Texas Legislature that’s about to convene, approval to make these fentanyl testing strips readily available and legal,” U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett said Monday at a Travis County federal grant announcement tied to drug overdoses.
Last session, the Texas House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to legalize fentanyl test strips. The bill did not make it through the Senate.
“I think we just have to keep working with them…but what happened last time, unfortunately, is we got into a position where the bill got stuck, I was working to get it unstuck and then folks decided to barricade themselves inside a senator’s office. And threatening lawmakers is never a strategy for actually winning the persuasion argument,” Oliverson said.