Thursday’s 39-0 vote moves legalizing the test strips one step closer to reality.
“What we were hearing was that 93% of the overdoses that are fatal contain now some level of fentanyl," said Democratic State Senator Paul Mark of the Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire District. "And so, 36 other states have already taken the lead and moved forward with allowing this, and there was a question, when even police departments or medical providers- It legal to have something like this or is it considered a drug paraphernalia? And so, in the name of trying to fight the overdose and opioid epidemic, giving this extra tool to people to try to prevent unnecessary deaths, I think it's going to be important. So, we're just legalizing the ability for people to test to make sure that the substance that they may be using does not contain an extremely dangerous, deadly drug in it.”
For Berkshire County groups on the front line of the region’s opioid overdose epidemic, the measure is both welcomed and considered long overdue.
“Fentanyl is an extremely powerful opioid medication," explained Gary Pratt. "It used to be used just for cancer patients. But having in the drug supply, people have to use sometimes five, 10, 15 times a day just to be able to maintain, so with each and every one of those injections, people's overdose risk just goes up and up and up.”
Pratt is the Executive Director of Rural Recovery, a Southern Berkshire County nonprofit based in Great Barrington.
“The situation is the same as it's been for the past however many years," he told WAMC. "The pandemic really exacerbated substance use. So, we're a rural area, we see it in all of the towns and Berkshire County. And, you know, we're kind of in a weird position in South Berkshire County anyway, because there's still a lot of misconception about whether there's actually a drug problem here in in Berkshire County, you know, because we don't really see open air drug markets. It's a lot of behind-the-scenes kind of stuff. it's everywhere, like it's everywhere, in every single town.”
Massachusetts set a grim record in 2022 with over 2,300 recorded opioid-related overdose deaths across the commonwealth. In the year 2000, only 375 were reported. Between 2012 and 2022, over 400 Berkshire County residents have died from opioid-related overdoses. Julie MacDonald of Pittsfield-based peer recovery group Living in Recovery says the move toward legalizing fentanyl test strips is a major accomplishment for Massachusetts. But she says there’s much more work to be done with an increasingly contaminated drug supply.
“Our hope is that it helps to curb some of this opiate epidemic that we're having and the crisis with overdose," MacDonald told WAMC. "The concerns, of course, are that as we as we come on top of these things, there's new things that come in, right, like xylazine. And who knows what's next. That there are kits that will test for everything, but just in terms of the fentanyl test strips. That's all it's going to show us, if there's fentanyl in it.”
Both MacDonald and Pratt agree that safe consumption sites are the next logical step.
“There's a lot of misconceptions about what safer consumption sites look like," said Pratt. "People think that they're just giant shooting galleries, but they're not. Medical professionals are there to help somebody if they do overdose. And then, the moment that they say that they want to go to treatment, they go to treatment. So I think it'd be very, very beneficial to Massachusetts, if we can get something like that going.”
“There are nurses there, there are people there that if people have an opiate use disorder, they're there if someone goes into overdose," said MacDonald. "And they're also there, to be able to provide them with options and resources, should they decide that they don't want to use anymore- Whereas if you're hiding off somewhere to do it, right, you're less likely, if there's all of that shame and stigma attached, to reach out for help, in that it's always like this moment for people when they make a choice to get clean, or to stop using, or to change the way that they're using, and if you don't get them in that moment, you can lose them forever.”
Following its Senate approval, the legislation that would legalize fentanyl test strips in Massachusetts now moves to the House.
