Amid a surge of deaths due to contamination, advocates urge testing of recreational drugs.
FentCheck co-founders Alison Heller and Dean Shold show the function of their FentCheck fentanyl tests strips provided for free at the Legionnaire Saloon in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. The free test strips can detect the presence of fentanyl in different kinds of drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, etc. Fentanyl can hide. But cheap paper tests, increasingly available at the Bay Area’s social hotspots and universities, are finding it.
Ed Ternan and his wife Mary hold a photo of their son Charlie who they lost to fentanyl poisoning when he was 22 years old. Ed is the co-founder, with his wife Mary, of Song for Charlie, a national family-run nonprofit charity dedicated to raising awareness about fake pills made of fentanyl. California, in contrast, has committed $4 million to distribute the tests as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $1 billion overall plan to tackle the fentanyl crisis.
The steps to test for fentanyl are straightforward. First, a sample of the product is dissolved into a bottle cap-size amount of water. Then the test strip is dipped into the water for 15 seconds. Results are revealed after three minutes. Like a pregnancy or COVID-19 test, lines indicate whether it’s positive or negative.
“One should assume that any drug obtained off the illicit market could be laced with fentanyl,” warns Stanford, which last fall installed 100 shelves holding free tests and overdose-reversing Narcan in dormitories across campus. “Fentanyl is in everything at this point,” said Jason Lujick, who distributes the tests at his two Oakland bars, The Legionnaire Saloon and Beeryland.
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