The potent drug Fentanyl cannot be detected by sight, taste, smell or touch. Only 2 mg ( a pencil point) can kill your child. It is commonly found in heroin, present in crack or methamphetamines, ketamine and tablets that mimic other pills like Xanax, Oxycontin or Percocet.
Drug dealers have gotten even more insidious and are placing on social media pictures of their pills with negative fentanyl test trips to trick your child into thinking these pills are clean and thereby safe. Your child can order these pills online after being hoodwinked to believe they can’t harm them until they ingest them and immediately overdose.
So, who can you trust? It’s difficult to say. Unless you test the entire pill for fentanyl because one part may contain fentanyl while the rest of the pill could be negative, you will not know.
How To Test For Opioids
For an at-home urine drug test, have your child urinate into a collection cup and insert a test strip or cassette to test the urine. The test strip will turn a specific color.
Perhaps, the most accurate way to test your drugs is to dissolve the pill in water first. Then add the fentanyl test strip. After testing it is still possible to use the opioid again: you can drink the pill or powder, snort them, using a clean nasal spray or wait until water evaporates to use them.
How Do You Get the Test Strips
You can order a pack of two test strips for $5.20 with a 30 day return from Amazon. If your state allows drug testing equipment, then you can get them free at a health department.
The majority of U.S. states allow fentanyl strips as of January 24, 2004. States that outlaw them because they think it’s encouraging illicit drug use are Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Kansas is unique in that it explicitly permits only testing equipment for fentanyl, fentanyl analog, ketamine, and gamma hydroxybutyric acid. In New Hampshire, you can test with strips for not only Fentanyl, but Xylazine, but not for minors. Xylazine is a drug used to sedate animals. It causes skin ulcers when injected repeatedly into humans.
Source: 50-state-DCE-Fact-Sheet-2023 pdf
No Anti-Fentanyl Tool Kit is Complete without Narcan
Narcan or Naloxone is a nasal spray that reverses the effects of a fentanyl /opiod overdose. It works by blocking the effects of opioids only on the brain and restores the breathing of the individual. It’s safe for anyone to use but may have to be applied more than once.
Since March 2023, the U.S. Federal Drug Administration has approved for its use over-the-counter. The Good Samaritan Laws protects individuals who come to the aid of an overdose and provide “reasonable assistance” to those who are, or whom they believe to be injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise incapacitated.” It gives policemen and others the right to administer Narcan to revive an individual who has overdosed, but it doesn’t protect against allegations of ‘gross negligence.’
TALK, TALK, TALK about the Dangers of Drugs
It is doubtful that your children at a party are going to take the time to use fentanyl strips, but let them know that these fake unregulated pills can harm/kill them. Know the history of what they are ordering online.
As a parent, you can lessen harmful drug use by having your tool kit with Narcan and the testing strips at your home and have your child know how to use them.
Wesley Cullen Davidson
Wesley Cullen Davidson is an award-winning freelance writer and journalist specializing in parenting. Currently, she is targeting her writing about recovery to parents whose children have substance abuse disorders.