A bipartisan Senate duo is pushing legislation that would increase screening for fentanyl in emergency rooms to identify patients suffering from overdoses.
The bill from Sens. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat, and Mike Braun, Indiana Republican, would require the Department of Health and Human Services to provide guidance to hospitals on the best way to incorporate fentanyl tests into their routine drug screens. It also requires HHS to determine how frequently emergency rooms test for fentanyl when patients come in for overdoses.
The legislation is named for Tyler Shamash, a teenager who died from a fentanyl overdose in part because the doctor didn’t know he’d ingested the drug when he entered the ER, according to the senators.
“Passing Tyler’s Law is imperative, so emergency rooms across the nation are directed to screen for fentanyl and we can put a stop to these preventable deaths,” Mr. Braun said.
The senators said many ERs test for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates and phencyclidine (PCP), but not fentanyl. Doctors may need to take special steps to test for fentanyl because, as a synthetic opioid, it doesn’t show up on rapid drug screenings.
Rep. Bob Latta, Ohio Republican, and Democratic Reps. Ted Lieu and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, both of California, wrote a House companion bill.
Fentanyl started to flood the heroin supply in the middle of the last decade, resulting in an uptick in overdose deaths. The highly potent synthetic opioid has shown up in a variety of drugs and counterfeit pills since then, killing Americans of all ages and backgrounds and bedeviling the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations.
The drug still causes tens of thousands of American deaths per year, placing pressure on congressional lawmakers and President Biden to address the issue.
Mr. Biden claimed a victory in November when Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to try and stop shipments of fentanyl ingredients from China to Mexico.
Mexican drug cartels often take the precursor chemicals and press the fentanyl in counterfeit pills. American users buy the pills, thinking it is another drug, and die from overdoses.
While U.S. policymakers seek solutions, fentanyl continues to take a toll in alarming ways.
Officials in Amherst County, Virginia, this week said they arrested two adults after gummy bears taken to an elementary school tested positive for fentanyl. Seven students had allergic reactions and five had to get medical treatment, according to 10 News.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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