Can Heroin User Live Long Enough 2 Try Fentanyl Test Strip

The United States is experiencing a deadly drug over dose epidemic in 2018.  Many of these deaths have been linked to fentanyl - and fentanyl like drugs which are far more potent than heroin.  Fentanyl is inexpensive and being used by the heroin dealer population to cut the heroin - meaning added to the street heroin to stretch amounts - making more profit.

Fentanyl test strips are used medically to test the urine of patients prescribed fentanyl to make sure they are taking the drug.  This is a health insurance regulation attached to prescribing protocols.  Since 2016 staff employed to manage the risk of death associated with the heroin epidemic have been using the fentanyl test strips in a unique fashion.

Staff dip the fentanyl test strips in to the cooker vessels that heroin users employ to prepare the injection. A positive on the fentanyl test strip indicates the heroin batch the user is buying from contains fentanyl and is a far more powerful mixture of substances.

This means the user must prepare greatly smaller amounts to inject to expect to survive having the street purchased substance of heroin - fentanyl in their body.  This is a progressive intervention that has not been readily accepted by the non- heroin user population.  This is a means of  trying to train the street heroin user population how to better understand the risk prior to injecting.