Yes, Drug Users Are “Rational”
Why Kevin Sabet and others have a stake in the idea that harm reduction ideas don’t work.
The New York Times recently reported that fentanyl test strips expose a “rift” in America’s response to the ongoing overdose crisis. “Fentanyl test strips have become a popular but contentious tool,” Jan Hoffman, NYT’s behavioral health reporter, wrote. Many states have recently legalized test strips; but they remain illegal, considered drug paraphenelia, in about 20 states.
Illicitly manufactured fentanyl continues to penetrate the drug supply, appearing in all kinds of pills and powders. Fox News anchors think drug dealers are lacing your children’s Halloween candy with fentanyl—maybe you can be the house that gives out test strips to trick-or-treaters, so they can check if their Skittles are pure.
Just joking.
Fentanyl test strips really offer drug users a simple yes/no as to whether the substance they bought has fentanyl in it. As I’ve yelled endlessly: The drug supply is contaminated! At this point, when recreational drug takers ask me what the deal is, I usually say it’s an incredibly dangerous time to be a drug user of any sort. But there are ways to mitigate risks and be safe.
Whatever pills or powders you buy from friends or friends of friends could have some traces of fentanyl in it. Test strips therefore offer some limited information about the contents of street drugs.
Harm reduction attorney Corey Davis told the Times that retail-level dealers ought to use test strips on the product they’re selling, so they can reassure customers that they’re getting the thing they want:
“People are already there to buy heroin, so if a dealer can say, ‘Hey, I’ve tested it, and I’m actually selling you what you think you’re buying,’ that’s a good thing. Dealers are making sure they’re not poisoning their customers with a much more dangerous drug.”
It’s neither that complicated, nor that radical of an idea. Which is why this “debate” is tiring. Of course test strips expose a “rift” because there is always a loud chorus of people in America who oppose whatever ideas the harm reduction movement comes up with. Test strips are yet another innovation trying to adapt to the current hell that is the drug supply. These test strips were invented to test urine, but some smart people realized the strips could be used to help people.
The NYT article sets up two familiar sides: One camp thinks fentanyl test strips should be made widely available to everyone, from key-bumping weekend warriors to the candy necklace dance music kids to entrenched IV drug users. The other camp thinks test strips either “enable” or “facilitate” drug use, and do more harm than good.
“Critics say test strips encourage drug use by giving users the green light if the supply is free of fentanyl,” Hoffman wrote. There’s also a subcamp that thinks test strips are moot and can’t be of much help because drugs “hijack” the brain and people with addiction do not make “rational” decisions.
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