Many Ohio public health agencies have lost a key funding stream from the Trump administration to stock test strips for illegal drugs containing fentanyl or other dangerous substances.
These test strips are considered a vital harm reduction tool that helps prevent overdose deaths. Agencies like Columbus Public Health warn they might run out of test strips, risking a jump in overdoses after the Buckeye State saw a reduction in deaths in the last several years.
A spokesperson with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) confirmed the move to WOSU in a statement. Guidance from the federal agencies changes what supplies and services defined under harm reduction can be supported with SAMHSA funding, including eliminating test strips from eligible options.
The spokesperson said the agency is shifting away from harm reduction and practices that "facilitate illicit drug use and are incompatible with federal laws." The law the statement cited was an executive order from President Donald Trump on "Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets."
"It is absolutely critical that federal funding provided by the American taxpayer goes to effective, common-sense solutions that have been proven to keep people out of an endless cycle of addiction and overdose and moves them into a life of recovery," the statement said.
HHS said it will still expand access to naloxone and other opioid overdose reversal medications.
Columbus Public Health told WOSU in a statement it was notified of the change a few weeks ago. It said CPH will continue to use the strips it already has, but will not be able to order new ones from the impacted grants.
CPH said in the last two years, it received more than 50,000 fentanyl test strips to distribute to the community at no cost. During that time, the agency overdose deaths were down in Columbus and across the country, which it attributes to harm reduction tools and techniques like these test strips by providing what's proven to be a cost-effective way of reducing preventable deaths and keeping people alive until they are ready for treatment.
"Once our fentanyl test strips run out, we will need to rely on other sources of public health funding which is already being stretched by budget cuts, limiting this effective harm reduction tool for vulnerable people in our community," the statement said. "We are greatly concerned that the positive progress we have made as a community in reducing overdose death rates will be reversed and people with the brain disease of addiction will needlessly die because of this decision."
Dr. Beth Weinstock is a physician at Equitas Health whose son Eli died in 2021 after accidentally ingesting fentanyl. She told WOSU the federal government backtracking support of harm reduction methods is a tragedy in the making.
"I feel like it's just gonna hinder health departments who are there essentially to help their community with life or death measures, and it's sad," Weinstock said.
Weinstock focuses her work on helping young people struggling with addiction and leads her own fentanyl awareness organization called BirdieLight. She said fentanyl test strips aren't a cure-all for the opioid epidemic, but they're an important part of the continuum of how the public can be kept safe.
She said test strips are most cost effective and can lead to using less of the expensive Narcan and naloxone drugs in response to an overdose.
"Particularly, if the fentanyl test strip is positive, the person who's about to use any substance may, of course, choose then not to use that substance," Weinstock said. "Or perhaps they are going to move forward with use and they would use less of it or they would use something more slowly, or perhaps, they would tell their peers and colleagues about the positivity of that substance."
Weinstock said she hopes Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine steps in to provide funding, pointing out that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has already done so.
"Since I've been in this field...Gov. DeWine has been quite supportive of harm reduction measures, and I can't speak for everyone in the legislature, but of course there are certain aspects of harm-reduction practices that have been supported within the state," Weinstock said.
DeWine's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
