PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Legislation that would decriminalize fentanyl testing strips and other opioid harm reduction items at the state level is currently moving through the Oregon House.
FentCheck is a nonprofit working to bring these testing strips that can tell if any medicine or drugs are laced with fentanyl to the Portland metro area.
The testing strips can be found at the Rialto Poolroom in Portland’s Old Town and Star Bar in Southeast Portland. The founders of FentCheck have also worked with different music festivals to make the product available there.
But that isn’t enough for them. They want to spread awareness until they no longer need to because accidental overdoses have stopped.
Despite still technically being considered paraphernalia, co-founders, Dean Shold and Alison Heller, are working to get their testing strips in venues while also waiting for legislation to make it easier to do so.
If the state is going to decriminalize drugs, Shold and Heller ask why aren’t prevention methods covered as well.
“It’s fascinating that post-Measure 110 you could possess up to 2 grams of cocaine, but you can’t actually have the test strip that will tell you if it’s adulterated with fentanyl or not. But if you take it and you’re about to die, then you have the Good Samaritan Law which will allow anyone to actually try and keep you alive,” said Shold.
The pair says dive bars, strip clubs and nightclubs are potentially vulnerable spaces where they’d like to get testing strips in.
While they have volunteers, they say it’s easier if a venue reaches out to them — that way they can coordinate how to get the testing strips at that site.
The legislation currently moving through the Oregon House would make it easier for that distribution to happen.
House Bill 2395, an omnibus package, would legalize fentanyl testing strips and other harm reduction items as well as declaring an emergency upon its passing.
Heller says the expansion of FentCheck seems fitting.
“Sitting, watching FentCheck work on [the] UC Berkeley campus and with high schools, we’re really excited to bring that to Portland,” said Heller. “It just seems really natural. If we’re going to move legislation in a way that allows recreational drug use we got to allow safety as well.”
The bill has strong support from a wealth of public officials such as Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meiran, a representative from the Oregon Nursing Association and Beaverton Public Schools Superintendent Gustavo Balderas.
A session is scheduled for Wednesday for the House Committee on Behavioral Health and Health Care.