Current Challenges
In 2022, 73,654 people died from a fentanyl overdose in the US, more than 2x the number of deaths in 2019.
Fentanyl deaths have increased every year since 2012, now making up 70% of all overdose deaths. Fentanyl is increasingly being found in the recreational drug supply across the United States, with users unaware that it has been added.
West Virginia has the highest overdose death rate in the USA, nearly 3x the national average.
When adjusted for population, West Virginia had the highest rate of overdose deaths and fentanyl overdose deaths in the country in 2022. West Virginia had 60.8 deaths per 100,000 people due to fentanyl overdoses, which is about 34% higher than Delaware, the state with the second-highest rate.
Drug use among young adults 18-25 is the highest among all age groups, with 38% using an illicit drug within the past year
About 1 in 5 of full-time college students aged 18-22 used an illicit drug in the past month. Considering college aged students are at high risk for substance abuse, understanding the scale of the crisis and the associated risk factors is key to avoiding a potentially life-shattering experience.
What We Do
The Test Strips Save Lives Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Morgantown, WV. Our mission is to expand young adults’ access to harm reduction tools, allowing them the opportunity to detect fentanyl and prevent overdoses. Our organization was started in response to a close friend passing away from taking a recreational drug that was unknowingly laced with fentanyl. Unfortunately, the reality of today is that many recreational drugs are being contaminated with fentanyl. Recreational drug users are more at-risk of dying from a fentanyl overdose, as they have no tolerance built up to opioids.
We currently operate a fentanyl test strip kit distribution network in Morgantown, WV. To get our kits to the people that need them, we partner with local businesses, who, in turn, allow the community to take them for free. This distribution method allows us to deliver low barrier and low cost harm reduction tools. Fentanyl test strips (used to detect fentanyl) help inform people who use drugs about their risk of fentanyl exposure prior to consumption. A study involving a community-based distribution program in North Carolina found that 81% of those with access to fentanyl test strips routinely tested their drugs before use.
The Test Strips Save Lives Foundation neither condones or denounces drug use, but we do accept that people use drugs for many different reasons. We understand that accidental drug poisonings and overdoses are serious issues facing our community and we would like to be a part of the solution. Testing drugs for fentanyl makes people safer, so our goal is to expand access to our kits within the community.
As with any test, there is a margin of error, so we recommend additional overdose prevention measures to users such as:
Never use alone
Carry Naloxone (over the counter opioid reversal drug)
Test strip kits and Naloxone can be found at no cost by visiting the pages linked below.
