Eliminate barriers to preventing drug deaths

Members of The Star News editorial board include Co-Publisher Carol O’Leary, Publisher Kris O’Leary and Editor Brian Wilson.

A holdover law from 50-year-old get tough on drugs effort has been putting Wisconsin residents at risk.

Gov. Tony Evers recently signed into law a bipartisan bill to decriminalize testing strips for the drug xylazine, a narcotic sometimes known as “tranq” that can make opioids even more deadly. The law change was patterned on decriminalization of fentanyl testing strips that took place in 2022.

Both actions have been praised by those who work with addictions and medical professionals who deal with the aftermath of overdoses as being important steps to prevent overdose deaths.

Both fentanyl and xylazine are deadly, even tiny doses. The powerful narcotics have been found to be added to other street drugs to make them more powerful with users not aware of their presence until suffering an overdose. With the high risk of fatal overdoses, public health efforts in the opioid crisis have shifted to emphasize efforts to prevent needless deaths.

However, the letter of the law has been a barrier to these efforts.

In the 1970s, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, as part of one of many get tough on drug efforts, released model legislation to the states to go after drug users and dealers. Among these were blanket rules defining a wide range of things as being “drug paraphernalia.”

According to John Woodruff, an attorney with the Washington D.C.- based Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association, the laws classified as illegal anything linked to taking or making banned substances.

This type of broad-stroke legislation definitions makes things easier for law enforcement and the courts to charge people for things like having ball point pens made into makeshift pipes or having scales, baggies and grow lights at their homes regardless of what their actual purpose is.

Decriminalizing test strips for xylazine is a good thing, as was decriminalizing the testing strips for fentanyl. However, this piecemeal approach of decriminalizing the tests one at a time only increases the body count and does nothing to prevent crime or keep unsuspecting people safe.

While throwing out the entire drug paraphernalia law would be a solution, such a move would face strong opposition from the general public and law enforcement communities. As an alternative, there needs to be enacted blanket exemptions to the drug paraphernalia laws to any testing materials or equipment used to determine the presence and strength of controlled substances. This would allow rapid deployment of tests as they are developed and bypass the slow-moving legislative process.

Such a move would give parents and others access to tools to prevent tragedies from taking place.

The use and abuse of unregulated street drugs has caused incalculable harm to individuals, families and communities. With the rise of opioid addictions, due in large part to over-prescription of narcotic painkillers, and a better understanding of addiction as a disease, there needs to be a societal shift toward treatment and preventing needless deaths or permanent harm rather than incarceration. Creating exemptions to drug paraphernalia laws for any future tests for presence and potency of deadly drugs would be a major step in reducing harm.