Public health workers will soon have a new tool at their disposal to thwart a spreading danger to users of illicit drugs: xylazine test strips. The new testing kits will allow health departments, ...

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that’s 50-100 times stronger than the pain reliever morphine. While some people use fentanyl on purpose, many others get it in their systems without their knowledge.

A red stripe on a test strip indicates that a heroin sample is positive for fentanyl. In the face of relentless increases in overdose deaths that involve fentanyl, the strips have become an important ...

OLYMPIA — Health officials say fentanyl test strips could help prevent accidental overdoses, but under current law, they’ve been illegal because they fall under the definition of drug paraphernalia.