Rutherford County approves five-year warranty and cleaning kit for new mass spectrometer as sheriff warns of xylazine

Rutherford County's opioid advisory board voted to approve a five-year warranty upgrade and a separate core cleaning kit for a newly purchased mass spectrometer, and asked the sheriff's office to provide quarterly usage and trend reports.

The board approved the five-year warranty after a motion and second; the sheriff's office said the vendor, Safeware, quoted an additional cost of $35,860.07 to extend coverage beyond the machine's base one-year warranty (the base machine price for the one-year warranty was reported in the meeting as $74,318.18). The board separately approved a core cleaning and battery reconditioning kit priced at $4,039.77.

Sheriff's Office representatives told the board they expect the spectrometer to support identification of emerging substances and mixes. "If we choose to go up to a 5 year warranty, we can pay the difference," a sheriff's office presenter said, and described the core cleaning kit as "an all in 1 unit" that also reconditions batteries. Staff told the board that cleaning frequency depends on usage and could be required as often as every 10 uses.

During the same exchange sheriff's staff warned the board about xylazine, an animal tranquilizer increasingly found mixed with opioids. "Xylazine is an animal tranquilizer... we're starting to find it substituted for fentanyl or within fentanyl and cocaine," a sheriff's representative said, adding that naloxone (Narcan) "doesn't work" on xylazine. The presenter said the office has recorded three deaths in the last 10 months involving xylazine and noted that state legislation recently addressed possession and sale of xylazine, although it remains not classified as a controlled substance in some contexts.

Board members pressed the sheriff's office on follow-up and monitoring. Chairman Harris asked for quarterly reports to track the spectrometer's utility and local substance trends; the sheriff's office agreed to prepare quarterly trend reports once spectrometry operations begin. Board members also asked whether the warranty or kit covered handheld units; the sheriff clarified the warranty applied to the main spectrometer only.

The board approved both purchases by vote. The meeting record shows roll-call confirmations of "yes" from multiple commissioners during the motions to approve the warranty and the cleaning kit.

Next steps: the sheriff's office will implement quarterly reporting on spectrometer use and substance trends as the county brings the device into operation. The board did not set a specific start date for the reporting cycle during the meeting.