On April 11, 2023, the Texas House voted 143-2 for a bill that would have legalized strips that test for the presence of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, only for the legislation to die without a hearing in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
Since then, at least 3,200 Texans have died from opioid overdoses, according to state data. A little more than a year after that House vote, in April 2024, at least nine people—that’s the official count, though the Texas Observer found it could have been as many as 12—died in just a few days in and around Austin, victims of a tainted batch of crack cocaine that caused dozens of fentanyl overdoses across the city. As the Observer reported earlier this year, legalized testing strips could have detected the presence of fentanyl in the adulterated crack, saving lives.
Now, this April 23, the House unanimously passed House Bill 1644, a similar measure that would legalize strips that check for fentanyl as well as xylazine, a non-opioid tranquilizer that has been found in the U.S. drug supply. That legislation is now exactly where its predecessor died, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, chaired by Senator Pete Flores, a Pleasonton Republican. Its supporters on both sides of the aisle are anxiously waiting to see if it fares better this session.
