This guidance document provides information about how the ADA can protect individuals with OUD from discrimination. It involves a comprehensive approach prioritizing prevention, enforcement, and treatment. While this document focuses on individuals with OUD, the legal principles discussed also apply to individuals with other types of substance use disorders.

California Family Code 6929 describes minor consent to drug services, and part (b) states that minors age 12+ may consent to diagnosis and treatment of drug/alcohol problems. Certainly doesn’t scream “give minors FTS and naloxone” but most law is parsimonious rather than narrowly prescriptive, and this is the legal basis we all use for youth overdose prevention services generally.

The Health and Safety Code, HSC 121349.1, allows the California Department of Public Health and local health departments to exempt SSPs from designated ‘paraphernalia’.

The California Health and Safety Code 11014.5 defines ‘drug paraphernalia’.

This assembly bill clarifies that fentanyl test strips are legal to distribute and possess in California.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced that federal funding may now be used to purchase rapid fentanyl test strips (FTS) in an effort to help curb the dramatic spike in drug overdose deaths largely driven by the use of strong synthetic opioids, including illicitly manufactured fentanyl.

This video covers how to use BTNX’s urine drug test strips as a harm reduction tool.

This fact sheet about fentanyl test strips was created by CDPH with the goal of providing information to people who use drugs and health care providers.

This preliminary statewide monthly count data is presented by substance and posted on the Overdose Prevention Initiative (OPI) Data webpage and is intended to provide death data to our partners more quickly.

Fentanyl test strips (FTS) are a simple, inexpensive, and evidence-based method of averting drug overdose. This article from Health Affairs covers what barriers have prevented and continue to prevent people from being able to access test strips.

National Harm Reduction Coalition created a comprehensive resource library solely focused on fentanyl. This webpage includes a fentanyl fact sheet, tips on using fentanyl safely, testing for fentanyl, and more.

LAPPA’s new fact sheet outlines how states can make this important harm reduction tool more accessible to their citizens.

The California Department of Public Health released information of fentanyl related deaths in California. The map shows the rates per 100K residents and the number of deaths in each county for 2020 in California. The bar graph shows fentanyl related deaths by age group for 2020 in California.

FentCheck is a harm reduction focused non-profit. Their goal is to get test strips into venues making them widely available to counter the increase in accidental overdoses.

This video from Utah Naloxone shows you how to use Fentanyl test strips.

This paper identifies current activities, gaps, and innovative strategies currently in use to address health equity and the social determinants of health (SDOH) within drug overdose prevention and response.

Emotional distress can happen before and after a disaster. This fact sheet offers coping strategies that can help when dealing with the aftermath of emergencies or disasters.

Opioid addiction expert Dr. David Kan discusses the importance of building strategic partnerships when creating effective overdose prevention strategies.