{"id":15033,"date":"2026-08-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=15033"},"modified":"2026-08-11T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:00:00","slug":"a-federal-policy-is-complicating-how-organizations-battle-the-opioid-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=15033","title":{"rendered":"A Federal Policy Is Complicating How Organizations Battle the Opioid Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, Baltimore had three mass overdose incidents<\/a> in the span of three months in its Penn North neighborhood.<\/p>\n

In one incident, more than two dozen people were hospitalized after many were found unresponsive<\/a>, lying in the streets or on sidewalks. No one died, but some came close.<\/p>\n

Follow-up testing found<\/a> that the street drugs contained high levels<\/a> of N-methylclonazepam, a benzodiazepine that operates similarly to Xanax or Valium. Like opioids, benzodiazepines suppress breathing. When they\u2019re combined, the risk of overdose<\/a> goes up. And benzodiazepines don\u2019t respond to opioid overdose reversal drugs.<\/p>\n

Afterward, the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition<\/a> created test strips specifically for benzodiazepines. The group distributed them \u2014 along with test strips that identify other harmful adulterants, such as fentanyl, xylazine<\/a>, and medetomidine \u2014 at clinics and neighborhood events. The strips, available at no cost, can also be found in bars and spread out on street corners. People testing drugs mix a small amount with water and then dip a test strip into the liquid. The strip will change color if it identifies an adulterant.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody really knows what they\u2019re getting whenever they\u2019re getting stuff off of the street,\u201d said Candy Kerr, a spokesperson for the coalition. \u201cHaving the test strips available for the general public gives them the option to move slower if they\u2019re going to use whatever they\u2019re going to use.\u201d<\/p>\n

A box with free drug test strips, used to detect fentanyl and other harmful adulterants, sits outside the Chesapeake Detention Facility in Baltimore. Many health advocacy groups try to give the strips to people leaving incarceration, to avert overdoses. (Scott Maucione\/WYPR)<\/p>\n

But a new federal policy could make it harder for organizations such as Kerr\u2019s to give out the test strips, and they\u2019re worried that overdoses could increase. In late April, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration banned the use of federal grants for distributing strips to the public and for some other harm reduction practices that have been credited with saving lives. Test strips have been used for nearly 10 years<\/a> to identify adulterants.<\/p>\n

A letter<\/a> sent to local health departments and nonprofits that provide addiction services explained that the Trump administration believes those harm reduction practices \u201cfacilitate illicit drug use and are incompatible with Federal laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the letter, grants from the Department of Health and Human Services also cannot be used for programs that support the use of clean needles or drug paraphernalia such as pipes, or to fund a type of specialized hotline<\/a> that people can call while taking drugs<\/a>, so someone is aware and can call for help if they overdose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Trump administration wants to focus more on other techniques, such as giving out naloxone, an overdose reversal drug available as a nasal spray, according to Emily Hilliard, an HHS spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is critical that federal funding provided by the American taxpayer goes to effective, common-sense solutions that\u202fhave been proven to\u202fsave lives and keep people out of an endless cycle of addiction and moves them into a life of recovery,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The new policy does not prohibit federal funds from being used to purchase test strips for use by law enforcement officers, public health officials, EMTs, or other medical professionals.<\/p>\n

That creates an important exception for government agencies that test drugs and send out regular reports<\/a> on what adulterants are saturating the drug supply in certain locations.<\/p>\n

Still, Yngvild Olsen<\/a>, who oversaw SAMHSA\u2019s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment<\/a> in the Biden and Trump administrations, says there is a substantial body of evidence that shows<\/a> giving test strips to people who use drugs can change behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some people deciding not to use the substances, some people deciding to reduce, to use less, or take other types of precautions, including naloxone, and making sure that there are people around that can actually then help in the case of an overdose,\u201d Olsen said.<\/p>\n

Kerr said the best approach would be to continue to promote the use of test strips while also continuing to give out lifesaving medications like naloxone. She believes that working on all fronts has helped lead to Baltimore\u2019s decline in overdose deaths, which have dropped<\/a> more than 40% since 2023.<\/p>\n

Naloxone, an overdose reversal drug, is spread out on a street corner for people to take after a 2025 mass overdose incident in Baltimore\u2019s Penn North neighborhood. (Scott Maucione\/WYPR)<\/p>\n

Under the new policy, nonprofits will still be able to hand out test strips, but they will have to find other funding for that work, which Kerr finds worrisome.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been making these strides forward because we\u2019ve had these things, because we\u2019ve been funded,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to pull money from other places.\u201d<\/p>\n

To pay for the test strips, Kerr said, the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition will have to cut back on services such as giving out hygiene and wound care kits. But she said that option is better than risking another mass overdose in Baltimore \u2014 or allowing even just one preventable fatality.<\/p>\n

This article is from a partnership that includes WYPR<\/a>, NPR<\/a>, and KFF Health News.<\/em><\/p>\n

KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article<\/a> first appeared on KFF Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, Baltimore had three mass overdose incidents in the span of three months in its Penn North neighborhood. In one incident, more than two dozen people were hospitalized after many were found unresponsive, lying in the streets or on sidewalks. No one died, but some came close. Follow-up testing found that the street drugs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15033"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}