Fentanyl is a powerful opioid with a high risk of overdose. One of the things that makes fentanyl so dangerous is that it’s used to cut other drugs like heroin or cocaine. Buying off the street makes it hard to know what’s really in your drugs.
One way to reduce your risk is to test your drugs for fentanyl with fentanyl test strips. The test strips are easy to use and it doesn’t take long to get results.
To Use a Fentanyl Test Strip:
- Dissolve a small amount of the drug in water. You can use the residue from a baggie or your cooker.
- Holding the blue side of the test strip, dip the other end into the water up to the wavy lines and wait for 15 seconds.
- Set the test strip on a flat surface and wait 5 minutes.
If a single pink line appears on the left-hand side, your drugs are positive for fentanyl.
Two pink lines mean that no fentanyl or similar opioids were found in your drugs. Keep in mind that even if you get a negative result, your drugs might still have fentanyl. Fentanyl can appear in some parts of a drug but not others. Fentanyl test strips also don’t test for some fentanyl-like drugs like carfentanil.
If no lines appear or a single line appears on the right-hand side, the result is invalid and you’ll need to test again with a new strip.
If You Are Using Drugs That May Contain Fentanyl:
- Carry naloxone in case of an overdose.
- Don’t use alone. Have someone you trust regularly check on you.
- Start low and go slow. Take smaller amounts and pace yourself.
- Don’t mix drugs.
