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Committee considers broadening protection for drug-test strips to include xylazine and other non-opioids
Summary
Senate Bill 6 would extend the legal protection that currently covers fentanyl test strips to testing equipment for xylazine and other substances; sponsor and committee members discussed the public-health rationale and the street presence of xylazine.
Senate Bill 6 would expand protections that prevent testing equipment from being treated as drug paraphernalia so that test strips for xylazine and other emerging non-opioid substances are similarly allowed. The sponsor told the committee that fentanyl test strips were authorized previously but that new street drugs, including xylazine, are not detected by those strips.
A committee member asked whether xylazine is related to xylitol and whether it is a horse tranquilizer; the sponsor confirmed xylazine is a veterinary tranquilizer with legitimate uses but said it has appeared on the street and is causing fatalities. The sponsor described the bill’s effect as treating testing equipment for non-opioid substances the same way fentanyl test strips are treated — exempting them from paraphernalia classification to allow distribution and use for harm-reduction purposes.
No formal roll-call vote on SB 6 was recorded in the portion of the hearing in the transcript. The committee proceeded through a sequence of bills and set a calendar for the next legislative day; SB 6 was presented during this session.
