– Editorial – - Eliminate barriers to preventing drug deaths
By Editorial Board
A holdover law from a 50-year-old “get tough on drugs” effort, has put Wisconsin residents at risk.
Gov. Tony Evers recently signed into law, a bipartisan bill to decriminalize testing strips for the drug xylazine, a narcotic sometimes known as “tranq,” that can make opioids even more deadly. The law change was patterned on decriminalization of fentanyl testing strips that took place in 2022.
Both actions have been praised by those who work with addictions and medical professionals who deal with the aftermath of overdoses, as being important steps to prevent overdose deaths.
Both fentanyl and xylazine are deadly, even tiny doses. The powerful narcotics have been found to be added to other street drugs to make them more powerful, with users not aware of their presence until suffering an overdose. With the high risk of fatal overdoses, public health efforts in the opioid crisis have shifted to emphasize efforts to prevent needless deaths.
However, the letter of the law has been a barrier to these efforts.
In the 1970s, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, as part of one of many “get tough on drug” efforts, released model legislation to the states, to go after drug users and dealers. Among these, were blanket rules defining a wide range of things as being “drug paraphernalia.”
According to John Woodruff, an attorney with the Washington, D.C.-based Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association, the laws classified as illegal, anything linked to taking or making banned substances.
This type of broad-stroke legislation definitions makes things easier for law enforcement and the courts to charge people for things like having ball point pens made into makeshift pipes, or having scales, baggies and grow lights at their homes, regardless of what their actual purpose is.
Decriminalizing test strips for xylazine is a good thing, as was decriminalizing the testing strips for fentanyl. However, this piecemeal approach of decriminalizing the tests one at a time, only increases the body count, and does nothing to prevent crime or keep unsuspecting people safe.
While throwing out the entire drug paraphernalia law would be a solution, such a move would face strong opposition from the general public and law enforcement communities. As an alternative, there needs to be enacted blanket exemptions to the drug paraphernalia laws to any testing materials, or equipment used to determine the presence and strength of controlled substances.
This would allow rapid deployment of tests as they are developed and bypass the slow-moving legislative process. Such a move would give parents and others access to tools to prevent tragedies from taking place.
The use and abuse of unregulated street drugs has caused uncalculable harm to individuals, families and communities. With the rise of opioid addictions, due, in large, part to overprescription of narcotic painkillers and a better understanding of addiction as a disease, there needs to be a societal shift toward treatment and preventing needless deaths, or permanent harm, rather than incarceration.
Creating exemptions to drug paraphernalia laws for any future tests, for presence and potency of deadly drugs, would be a major step in reducing harm.
Members of the Courier Sentinel editorial board include publisher Carol O’Leary, general manager Kris O’Leary and Star News editor Brian Wilson.
