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Georgia committee expands drug-checking tools to cover xylazine and other adulterants
Summary
The Georgia House Health Committee voted to advance Senate Bill 6 to allow drug-checking tools beyond synthetic opioids, explicitly covering xylazine and other non-opioid adulterants; the measure passed the committee by voice vote.
Senator Kay Kirkpatrick introduced Senate Bill 6 to the Georgia House Health Committee as a narrow measure to expand legal access to drug-checking tools for adulterants beyond synthetic opioids, citing a rise in deaths involving the non-opioid sedative xylazine.
The bill would broaden earlier language that legalized fentanyl test strips so that test strips or similar tools that detect xylazine or other emerging adulterants are not treated as illegal paraphernalia. "This is probably the shortest bill that you're gonna see this session. Senate bill 6, and this is about drug overdoses," Kirkpatrick said in opening remarks, noting that many overdose deaths now involve multiple substances.
Kirkpatrick cited recent data showing a sharp increase in xylazine involvement in Georgia overdose deaths: an increase from 0.8 percent to 9 percent since 2022, and that all suspected xylazine-involved deaths in 2022 also involved fentanyl. She emphasized that xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer sometimes called "tranq," is not an opioid and does not respond to naloxone (Narcan).
Two supporters spoke in favor during the committee's public comment phase. Jeff Breedlove, who identified himself as a person in long-term recovery and representing the Georgia Council for Recovery, said the strips "undoubtedly will save somebody's life in Georgia." Mark Heiden of the R Street Institute described the measure as a harm-reduction step that accounts for the unpredictable nature of adulterants appearing in the illicit supply.
After brief committee discussion and no substantive questions, a committee member moved to advance the bill; another member seconded. The chair called for the ayes and announced the motion passed by voice vote. The sponsor identified the House sponsor as Chairman Cooper and the committee recorded the bill as LC520718SSCS.
The committee did not enter a roll-call vote; the transcript records a voice vote and the chair's announcement that the bill passed the committee.
The bill's language avoids listing specific chemicals so future adulterants can be covered without subsequent statutory fixes, and the sponsor stressed that the measure is intended as a pragmatic, life-saving step while prevention and treatment work continues.
Votes at a glance: the committee advanced Senate Bill 6 (LC520718SSCS) by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript.
