Local provider: Xylazine test strips now legal; distribution underway but no human reversal exists

Brad Bishop, a provider at an organization represented in the meeting, told the board his bill decriminalizing Xylazine test strips took effect July 1 and that the group is distributing the strips in the community. Bishop described Xylazine and metetomidine as veterinary tranquilizers increasingly found mixed with fentanyl and said the new strips allow detection of these additives before they show up in medical examiner reports.

"I wrote a bill that, was sponsored by rep Salzman and senator Gates and signed into law July 1 that decriminalized these, so now we can detect this in our supply before it shows up in the medical examiner's report," Bishop said. He cautioned that these veterinary sedatives "do not reverse with naloxone" and that a human reversal agent does not yet exist, though animal reversal agents are available.