Fentanyl Test Strips

"Fentanyl test strips (FTS) emerged in this context as a drug checking tool to address the burgeoning fentanyl crisis. FTS was originally developed as a field immunoassay to screen for the presence of fentanyl in urine, but harm reduction organizations discovered that FTS can also detect fentanyl in illicit drug solutions. This realization has led many harm reduction organizations to distribute FTS to people who consume street opioids as an off-label approach to test street drugs for fentanyl (Peiper et al., 2019). Research published during this early period exposed a growing concern of unwitting fentanyl exposure among heroin consumers and a general willingness to use FTS. Studies showed a high percentage of PWID were interested in using FTS to test heroin (Allen et al., 2020; Krieger, Goedel, et al., 2018; Park et al., 2021; Sherman et al., 2019) and syringe services programs were making them increasingly available alongside naloxone in OD prevention kits (Beharie et al., 2023).

"Of particular significance were a handful of studies showing PWID modifying their drug use behavior upon receiving positive FTS results (Goodman-Meza et al., 2022; Krieger, Goedel, et al., 2018; Peiper et al., 2019). Notably, a community-based study in North Carolina found that PWID with positive FTS results had 5 times higher odds of practicing safer drug use compared to PWID with negative results (Peiper et al., 2019). Similar studies arrived at comparable effects and together confirmed that PWID were willing to use FTS and initiate risk reduction behaviors when consuming fentanyl (Park et al., 2020, 2021)."