Fentanyl test strips are coming to Washington State University Vancouver and Clark College campuses this fall, as mandated by a new state law.
Fentanyl test strips look similar to pH test strips. People can use them to test cocaine, ecstasy or other drugs for fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid driving a spike in overdose deaths in Clark County and across the nation.
Overdose deaths in Clark County increased 21 percent from 2022 to 2023, according to the Washington State Department of Health.
Between 2020 and 2022, 29 people 24 years or younger died from a fentanyl overdose in Clark County, according to the state Department of Health.
Testing drugs for fentanyl requires crushing them into a powder, dissolving a small portion in water and then dipping in the test strip.
Fentanyl is often secretly mixed into other drugs during production because it’s cheaper and can make drugs’ effects last longer. However, fentanyl can be deadly, especially for an inexperienced college student experimenting with party drugs. Experts say a lower tolerance for opioids can make someone more susceptible to overdoses.
Experts found fentanyl in combination with methamphetamine made up 41 percent of all drug overdose deaths in Clark County in 2023.
The Legislature passed House Bill 2112 earlier this year. It requires college campuses to make available fentanyl test strips and naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal medication.
Eric Scott, director of student engagement and well-being at WSU Vancouver, said fentanyl test strips will be offered through the Student Wellness Center beginning in November.
WSU Vancouver spokeswoman Brenda Alling said staff are waiting to distribute them until the school can offer educational workshops on how to use them.
Clark College spokeswoman Maureen Chan-Hefflin said the school hopes to have the test strips this fall, when staff will begin an internal awareness “mini-campaign” to ensure students know where to find these resources. Clark College staff are identifying where to store them and which departments would oversee distribution, she said.
Fentanyl test strips are geared toward people who don’t regularly use drugs, said Kevin Fischer, chief medical officer at Columbia River Mental Health Services.
“In my treatment world, everyone is using fentanyl intentionally, so these have little value in that group,” Fischer said in an email. “But for a college campus where individuals might be intentionally trying to avoid fentanyl, the availability and use of fentanyl test strips could very conceivably save lives.”
But how effective are these fentanyl testing strips, and why aren’t they used more often?
Although it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when fentanyl test strips became widely available, dozens of studies appeared in 2018 regarding their effectiveness.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the test strips are useful for detecting fentanyl, but they have their limitations. They can’t always detect similar drugs, such as alfentanil or carfentanil, and they might not work well on large amounts of drugs, specifically methamphetamine, MDMA or diphenhydramine. The test strips also can’t tell you how much fentanyl is in a sample — just that it contains fentanyl.
Even so, they’re a cheap way to potentially save lives. (Each strip costs $1 on Amazon.)
Fentanyl test strips are less common in some states, such as Oregon, because they are technically illegal and considered drug paraphernalia under the law. However, many of those laws were written before the fentanyl crisis.
Another issue, Fischer pointed out, is that fentanyl test strips aren’t reimbursable by Medicaid or other insurers.
“So any organization that makes them available for free has to pay for them, as well as the time for employees to distribute them. That essentially makes distributing fentanyl test strips a good idea competing with a lot of other good ideas for a finite pool of resources,” he said.
If the state passed legislation making them a reimbursable item under insurance, they might be used more, Fischer said.
In the meantime, Fischer thinks it’s a good idea for college campuses to distribute them.
“I think what gives me heartache with the idea, however, is that the inferred message is that the methamphetamine, cocaine or ecstasy is now somehow safe because a fentanyl test strip indicates that there is no fentanyl present in the drug sample,” he said. “While the drug may be safer for not having fentanyl as an adulterant, those substances do kill college students regularly.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect the correct number of deaths from fentanyl overdoses for people under 24 years old and to clarify fentanyl in combination with methamphetamine made up 41 percent of all drug overdose deaths in Clark County in 2023.
