21-05-2025
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
