Annapolis considering test kits for opioids
Plan could help connect drug users to treatment, Buckley, city officials say
Annapolis city officials and Mayor Gavin Buckley are exploring a program to give drug users a test kit to check drugs for fentanyl and other potent opioid derivatives.
Buckley and Kevin J. Simmons, director of the Office of Emergency Management, said the proposal is in its early planning stages; the mayor said he hasn’t approached Annapolis City Council with the idea. But the two said they’ve gotten support from other public safety agencies.
The strips themselves are relatively basic, asking users to take a small amount of drugs — typically heroin — and place it in a cup of water before they place a small paper strip into the cup to test the drugs. The kits typically cost about $1 apiece.
While there’s no timeline for implementation, Simmons said he wants to see it become a reality, and believes the city could use it as another way to connect addicts to treatment.
“What’s encouraging to me is that if you’re using fentanyl test strips, then you care about your well-being,” Simmons said. “So you’re more apt to accept counseling. You’re more apt to accept health education. You’re more apt to get into some type of program.”
The effort comes as the city continues to face an increase in heroin overdoses each year, although the rate of fatality has dipped slightly from 2017.
Annapolis Police Department statistics from late October show 113 heroin overdoses in the city so far this year. Nine of those people died from an overdose, compared to 11 in 2017.
Anne Arundel County as a whole had 903 reported overdoses this year as of Oct. 30, according to police statistics, slightly fewer than in the same period in 2017.
However, data suggest overdoses have become increasingly fatal. The county had seen 149 fatal overdoses this year, only three fewer than the record set for all of 2017. The medical examiner’s office ruled fentanyl was the primary cause of death in 102 of those cases and a heroin-fentanyl mix was responsible for another 19 deaths.
City officials say they have drawn some unusual inferences regarding the demographics affected by the state’s opioid addiction crisis that have them thinking of new ways to engage the community.
Much has been made about how, nationally, victims of heroin addiction are largely white males in their 20s and 30s. The narrative has been that whites in economically depressed rural areas are increasingly turning to the drug.
However, in Annapolis, older black men are disproportionately the victims of heroin overdoses, according to Annapolis police statistics. Of the 113 heroin overdoses reported in the city this year, 30 affected black men 45 years of age or older. Removing age also reveals that nearly half of all heroin overdose victims in the city — 53 out of 113 — are black.
The drug testing idea has been implemented in larger cities such as Baltimore and Boston, but in other municipalities legislators and community members have argued that the tests would enable users’ habits by removing some of the consequences of their actions.
Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh has pushed for more addicts to be diverted into treatment rather than prison and has advocated for more treatment options — but has pushed back against the idea of trying to make drugs safer to use. His spokesman has said Schuh is concerned about “giving people the tools to continue their addiction.”
Steuart Pittman, who defeated Schuh in Tuesday’s election, wrote in an email that his “instincts tell me that fentanyl strips in particular could save lives” but he would “consult with treatment providers, doctors and researchers” before supporting fentanyl test strips on a county level.
Buckley said he doesn’t agree that this could encourage drug use.
“You can judge these things until it’s your kid,” he said.
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