Health Care

Trump administration reverses on paying for fentanyl detection strips

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by Nathaniel Weixel - 04/28/26 3:33 PM ET

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by Nathaniel Weixel - 04/28/26 3:33 PM ET

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The Trump administration is no longer allowing federal funds to be used for purchasing or distributing test strips that can determine if street drugs have been mixed or cut with fentanyl or other contaminants, a reversal that comes amid the administration’s broader opposition to harm reduction practices.

In an open letter to federal grantees, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said it was ending the practice, which it has championed since 2021, because the strips are “intended for use by people using drugs.”

However, the notice emphasized that federal funds can still be used for test strips to be used by public health officials, law enforcement, medical workers and others in professional settings.

Test strips cost about $1 each and can detect drugs like fentanyl or animal tranquilizers like xylazine and medetomidine. Many states have legalized test strips in an effort to slow the number of overdose deaths.

The Biden administration in 2021 first allowed fentanyl test strips to be purchased using federal funding — something the Trump administration didn’t immediately object to when President Trump returned to office last year.

But the reversal is the latest example of the administration’s clear and deliberate shift away from “harm reduction” strategies and toward an abstinence-first model.

The idea of harm reduction is that interventions that make drug use safer have lifesaving merits, including the possibility that users might seek treatment. But the Trump White House has said harm reduction policies “facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm.”

“To finally bring an end to this crisis and achieve the Great American Recovery, it is essential that the use of federal funding is aligned to common-sense public health strategies that focus on prevention, treatment, and long-term recovery,” the administration said in a statement.

Officials have called harm reduction “an ideological concept … which has been used to advocate for policies that are incompatible with federal laws and inconsistent with this Administration’s priorities.”

The SAMHA letter encouraged federal funds be used for opioid overdose supplies like naloxone, the overdose-reversal medication; sharps disposal kits; and testing and vaccination for infectious diseases like hepatitis and HIV.

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