Latest news with #HouseBill1644
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Texas reined in recreational THC for more medical marijuana this legislative session
Texas lawmakers this year heavily focused their drug policy agenda on banning tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, products in the state. Senate Bill 3, which prohibits the possession of consumable hemp products that contain any synthetic cannabinoid, often known as delta-8, was a priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who often denounced the effects of the drug on children. As a concession of sorts to veterans and THC users with chronic conditions, House Bill 46 also passed, expanding the state's medical marijuana program by providing more products to users and adding more qualifying conditions. Both bills found themselves tied together as lawmakers reasoned that removing hemp options from the general public could be offset by expanding the medical marijuana industry. While the focus was primarily on THC this session, Texas quietly passed Senate Bill 2308, which would create a state-funded consortium to research a psychedelic drug called ibogaine. The clinical trials would test whether ibogaine is a viable treatment for substance use disorders and other mental health conditions. However, multiple bills that could have prevented overdose deaths failed to gain traction this year. House Bill 1644, for example, would have removed testing strips for fentanyl and xylazine, a veterinary sedative also known as 'tranq,' from the list of banned drug paraphernalia. In 2019, Texas lawmakers embraced the potential to boost the state's agricultural market by legalizing hemp products derived from cannabis plants with less than 0.3% of THC. Six years later, SB 3 intends to shut down the $8 billion hemp industry and cut its estimated 50,000 jobs when the ban takes effect in September. Critics say the hemp industry has exploited a loophole in the 2019 law to the tune of more than 8,000 retailers now selling THC-laced edibles, drinks, vapes, and flower buds. The proposed law would ban consumable hemp products that contain any synthetic cannabinoid, often known as delta-8. Non-intoxicating and non-psychoactive CBD or CBG would remain legal. People found in possession of a product with those intoxicating cannabis compounds could face a fine of up to $500. Higher fines and jail time would be possible for repeat offenders. Hemp industry leaders and advocates have denied any harmful intentions and are in favor of regulations on the industry rather than a ban. Aging Texans, veterans, and parents of children with mental illness or special needs have spoken out about the benefits of hemp, including the ease of access, the variety of products available to them, and the lower price. In contrast, concerned parents demanded a ban because they fear children would be harmed from recreational use. The Texas Hemp Business Council reported that it delivered 5,000 letters to Abbott's office earlier this week, along with a petition signed by over 120,000 people, urging the governor to veto the bill. Abbott has until June 22 to decide on a veto. In Texas, licensed medical cannabis providers must house all operations — including cannabis cultivation, processing, extracting, manufacturing, testing, and dispensing — under one roof. State regulations also prohibit inventory storage of medical cannabis products in multiple locations, so products must be distributed from the central dispensary. Any prescriptions scheduled for pickup outside the central dispensary must be driven daily to and from the pickup location — sometimes hundreds of miles round-trip. This has made their products more expensive and limited where the medical marijuana program can reach, hampering the small medical cannabis market in Texas. HB 46 aims to help by expanding the program to include more popular products such as prescribed inhalers and vaping devices, allow off-site storage and add nine dispensers, bringing the total to 12. It also adds traumatic brain injuries, chronic pain, Crohn's disease, and terminal illnesses to the list of qualifying conditions. The first three dispensers will be selected from the previously submitted 2015 list of dispensers and then made available to the public. The expansion of the medical marijuana program will go into effect in September if Abbott signs it into law. Among drug-related bills that received less attention was SB 2308, which will make Texas a hub for ibogaine-related research, development, treatment, manufacturing, and distribution. This will be accomplished by creating a consortium that includes higher education institutions, drug developers, nonprofits, and other stakeholders to secure U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for a treatment. Ibogaine is a psychedelic found in the roots of the iboga plant, primarily found in Africa, and has been used for centuries during shamanistic rituals due to its ability to induce hallucinations in large doses. The drug has been illegal in many countries, but scientists recently announced a study finding that, in low doses, ibogaine might have beneficial uses to treat addiction, PTSD, and brain injuries. The bill could essentially give Texas a stake in any future revenue that may come from the state developing a medical use for ibogaine. The program will be funded through a $50 million appropriation from the state's general fund. Fentanyl, a potent drug commonly mixed with other substances and has caused the deaths of more than 7,000 Texans in the last six years, is odorless and tasteless, making detection nearly impossible without specialized equipment. Fentanyl test strips are among the cheapest and easiest ways to prevent overdoses, but for a third time, legislation to legalize them failed in the Senate. HB 1644, which would have legalized opioid drug testing strips, never got a hearing in the Senate despite passing unanimously in the House. The main argument against drug testing strips has been that it encourages continued drug use, but advocates deny this claim, saying that once someone is thinking about their safety, it is by the time they are getting close to quitting. Senate Bill 1732, which would have allowed nurses and physician assistants to prescribe medication-assisted treatment, like methadone and buprenorphine, for opioid use disorders, also never received a committee hearing. A smaller step lawmakers made to address overdoses comes in House Bill 4783, which requires the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to prepare a report every two years for lawmakers to evaluate the distribution of opioid overdose reversal drugs, like Narcan. The report will be required to create a statewide goal for opioid reversal drugs and include an estimate of insufficiencies in the current supply and a plan to address overdoses in high-risk areas.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After passing the Texas House, fentanyl test strip bill languishes in Senate
Nearly one month after the Texas House unanimously advanced a proposal to legalize fentanyl test strips, activists stormed into the office of Republican state Sen. Pete Flores to demand that the upper chamber's Criminal Justice Committee consider the bill before the session ends. With raised voices, members of Austin-based advocacy group VOCAL-TX told Flores' staff 'you have blood on your hands' for failing to set House Bill 1644 or its Senate companions for a hearing. The legislation would also legalize strips that test for xylazine, another synthetic opioid. 'The people have approved the bill, and you haven't,' said Carolyn Williams. 'My son died for nothing — and this could have been preventable, but you won't pass it. I don't know what kind of God you serve, but the God you serve is not a righteous God to have people killed.' Williams' son died after smoking a fentanyl-laced joint, she later told the American-Statesman. She and other protesters brandished signs reading, 'Over 5,000 Texans lost to preventable overdose. Take action now Senator Flores!' and 'Texans need drug checking tools!' 'I heard you, I heard you, I heard you,' said Flores' chief of staff, Harold Stone, gesturing to each activist. Flores, a Pleasanton Republican who chairs the committee that would hear the bill, was not visible in the office and did not seem to be present. One of Flores' aides called state troopers with the Department of Public Safety, and after the protesters continued to yell questions, DPS escorted them out. Flores' staff declined to answer questions from the Statesman about the senator's position on the bill and told the reporter to leave. The office also did not respond to an email request for comment Tuesday. This is the second time the state House has passed legislation to legalize fentanyl test strips and the second time that VOCAL-TX has confronted a senator for declining to hear the bill. In 2023, advocates occupied the office of state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who was then the chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. Test strips are used to prevent unintentional consumption of fentanyl in drugs like cocaine, heroin and marijuana, which are sometimes laced with synthetic opioids. Texas is one of four U.S. states where possession of fentanyl test strips is a criminal offense, alongside Indiana, Iowa and North Dakota. The push for tools to address overdoses has taken on more urgency as deaths from synthetic opioids have skyrocketed in Texas and across the U.S. Fentanyl was identified as the likely cause of a surge of 79 overdoses in Austin last spring, which killed nine people. 'We're so tired of seeing our loved ones, our neighbors pass away of overdoses, preventable overdoses, while the state refuses to authorize public health tools that would actually save people's lives,' Paulette Soltani, an organizer with VOCAL-TX, told the Statesman. VOCAL-TX is an offshoot of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance that aims to end "the AIDS epidemic, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, and homelessness," according to its website. In a social media post Tuesday, state Rep. Tom Oliverson, who authored HB 1644, said the protesters had 'crosse(d) a line' and risked undermining progress on the bill. 'Confronting and intimidating an elected official— I don't think that's ever been successful,' he told the Statesman in an interview Tuesday. Oliverson was still in communication with his Senate colleagues on the bill, he said, but Tuesday's confrontation 'pretty much ends the conversation for the session.' He said he told advocates not to confront Huffman's office in 2023 and was not consulted about the protest in Flores' office. The Cypress Republican said his work as an anesthesiologist has shown him how 'exceptionally powerful' and 'exceptionally dangerous' fentanyl is. He believes people will buy and use drugs regardless of whether test strips are available, but knowing whether fentanyl is present could save their lives. It's one of very few areas in which he agrees with the principles of harm reduction, he said. 'Everybody who struggles with addiction deserves a chance to be sober,' Oliverson said. 'But you can't fix that if you're dead.' The fifth-term House member and GOP caucus chair added that he 'can't seem to figure out why the Senate is so opposed on the issue.' More than 5,000 Texans died of fentanyl poisoning in 2023, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. That year, lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott increased criminal penalties for people who supply illicit fentanyl-laced drugs, required public schools to educate students on fentanyl overdose prevention and authorized public universities to distribute NARCAN, which can reverse the effects of an overdose. The Senate could soon vote on another bill that would address illicit drug use, House Bill 1142. The legislation would require health insurance plans for Texas public employees to cover mental health and substance use disorders. State Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, authored a companion bill in the upper chamber. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, did not respond to the Statesman's inquiry Tuesday about his position on HB 1644. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Activists pressure Texas Senate to hear fentanyl test strip bill
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Attempt to decriminalize fentanyl testing strips in Texas could stall in the Senate for a third time
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways Fentanyl test strips are among the cheapest and easiest ways to prevent overdoses, but multiple attempts to legalize them — even with Gov. Greg Abbott's support in the past — have failed in the Senate. This year, legislation to legalize these test strips faces similar challenges. 'I think that there's a different stream of thought that feels like if you give an inch, you give a mile, and that any sort of lessening of prohibition stance is sort of giving up and giving over to drug use,' said Katharine Neill Harris, a drug policy fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. House Bill 1644, by state Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, would remove testing strips for fentanyl and xylazine, a veterinary sedative also known as 'tranq,' from the list of banned drug paraphernalia. This bill passed unanimously in the House last month and is now pending in the Senate. Fentanyl, a potent drug commonly mixed with other substances and has caused the deaths of more than 7,000 Texans in the last six years, is odorless and tasteless, making detection nearly impossible without specialized equipment. This is why Oliverson called fentanyl testing strips a 'mine detector' for a person trying to walk across a minefield. A package of fentanyl strips. One line indicates fentanyl is present, and two lines indicate a negative result. Credit: Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune The cost of fentanyl test strips can range from $10 to $30 for a box of 30. To use the strips, testers dissolve a small amount of a drug in water and then dip the strip into it. One line indicates fentanyl is present, and two lines indicate a negative result. This is the second legislative session in a row that Oliverson has tried to get his bill passed. Both times, his legislation didn't get a committee hearing in the Senate. With less than four weeks left in the legislative session, his bill this session hasn't yet been considered in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. Oliverson, in his speech from the House floor, suggested that Senate lawmakers fear that legalizing the strips would mean that people would start 'using drugs to their heart's content safely.' 'I want every person in Texas who is struggling with addiction to get the help they need. But I can't fix that if they are dead,' Oliverson told lawmakers last month when his bill passed. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate, did not return a request for comment nor did the criminal justice committee chair, Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton. Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, credited by drug policy advocates last legislative session for blocking fentanyl testing strips from a hearing, didn't comment on whether she supports legalization. 'The structural nature of the Senate, where the lieutenant governor has the power to decide whether a bill gets a hearing or not, can be quite a big hurdle,' Harris said. Travis County Judge Andy Brown said the delay in legalizing fentanyl testing strips is only costing lives with each passing year. 'Our fight against the number one cause of accidental death in Travis County is hampered by the fact that we haven't legalized fentanyl test strips in Texas,' Brown said. Advantages of fentanyl strips Early last year, a rash of over 70 overdoses rocked Travis County in a span of three days, killing more than nine people. However, more deaths could have occurred if the county and the state hadn't made efforts to get overdose reversal drugs like Narcan and naloxone to the general public last legislative session. To combat the growing number of fentanyl overdose deaths in Texas, state lawmakers in 2023 launched a $10 million fentanyl awareness campaign and plan to distribute doses of Narcan to every county in the state. 'I also get the sense that publicity campaigns that we have done and that the state has done have helped get the education out there, too,' Brown said. Brown said Travis County, despite the harrowing encounter last year, saw a decline in fentanyl related deaths, dropping by 36%, from 279 in 2023 to 179 in 2024. A Texas Harm Reduction Alliance drop-in center in South Austin on May 5, 2025. Credit: Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune During this same period, deaths from fentanyl overdose statewide dropped 14%, to 5,070 in 2024. 'We don't know yet if this is a long-term decline. Certainly, it's an encouraging development that we hope to see continue,' Harris said, pointing out that 87,000 deaths are still a lot. A dip doesn't mean a complete decline as the drug market is unpredictable. This is why drug policy advocates and others are clamoring for the legalization of drug testing strips, which are cheaper to stock than Narcan and can keep someone from using fentanyl in the first place. In December 2022, Abbott announced his support for fentanyl testing strips as he believed the opioid crisis had gone too far. Attempts to contact Abbott to see if he still supports testing strips were not returned. Abbott did not respond to a request for comment on whether he still supports legalization. 'I think we would reduce the number of deaths that we're seeing in the state of Texas if we just made test strips legal,' Brown said. Uncertain future Maggie Luna, executive director of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, an Austin-based nonprofit that does outreach and operates a drop-in center for people who might need Narcan, condoms, bandages, and more, has seen firsthand the demand for fentanyl testing strips. Their organization can't legally buy testing strips but accepts tests donated to them from other states. 'People are always asking for fentanyl testing strips and xylazine test strips,' Luna said. The Texas Harm Reduction Center distributes Narcan and other supplies to clients. Credit: Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune The Texas Harm Reduction Alliance has been on the front-lines of this fight against drug-related deaths, reversing more than 300 overdoses in 2024 alone with Narcan, Luna said. If fentanyl use continues, Luna is concerned about it worsening because of federal funding cuts to substance abuse programs, Texas lawmakers' attempt to ban intoxicating substances like hemp and kratom, and the economic downturn, which notoriously leads to spikes in drug usage. 'We are going to start seeing people seeking drugs at the same time we are clawing back the money that we have for tools to keep people alive,' Luna said. 'We are heading to a period of death.' Luna said legalizing test strips allows organizations like hers, which face an uncertain future, a cheap option to save lives. 'Every overdose can be reversed if we are applying the right education and giving out the correct tools,' Luna said. Disclosure: Rice University and Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Texans seeking help for substance use can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's free help line at 800-662-4357. They can also access services in their region through the Texas Health and Human Services website. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bill to legalize fentanyl test strips passes Texas House
AUSTIN (Nexstar) – Texas House lawmakers gave preliminary approval to legislation that legalizes the possession of test strips for fentanyl and xylazine. House Bill 1644 passed 145-0. The bill requires one more vote before it can move to the Senate for consideration. Test strips allow people to determine if the drugs they are using contain fentanyl or xylazine. Texas Health and Human Services reports that a large number of fentanyl-related deaths are a result of people taking counterfeit prescription drugs. 'Most of the people in our state who have been and are still dying from fentanyl overdose are dying because they didn't know they were coming into contact with fentanyl,' Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, said as he laid out HB 1644 before the vote. Current Texas law considers fentanyl test strips to be drug paraphernalia, putting them into the same category as bongs, pipes and rolling papers. The charge for possession constitutes a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $500. Similar legislation passed the Texas House in 2023, but failed to gain support in the Senate. Some opponents of the legislation have raised concerns that testing strips can encourage people to continue using drugs. Oliverson said the bill is about saving lives. 'This does not mean that we want people to be able to use drugs to their heart's content safely. I want every person in Texas who's struggling with addiction to get the help that they need, but I can't fix that if they're dead,' Oliverson said. 'It is a mine detector for a person trying to walk across a minefield, who is going to walk across the minefield anyway,' Oliverson added, before the House unanimously passed the bill. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
