Section

Harm Reduction

Naloxone, fentanyl test strips, xylazine, syringe services, safe supply.

Naloxone Still Reverses Fentanyl. It Doesn't Touch What's Being Cut Into It Now.

Nitazenes and a veterinary sedative called medetomidine are spreading through the illicit opioid supply — and neither one plays by the rules that naloxone was built for.

Nitazenes (up to 40x fentanyl's strength) have been confirmed in 48 of 50 states, and a veterinary sedative called medetomidine is spreading through the fentanyl supply. Naloxone doesn't fully reverse either one. Here's what actually changes for harm reduction.

Jul 306 minRead

More in Harm Reduction

65 total in this section

02Harm ReductionJul 29

Xylazine Was the Adulterant Everyone Learned to Test For. Medetomidine Is 300 Times Stronger, and the Government Just Defunded the Strips That Catch It

Medetomidine, a veterinary sedative up to 300 times more potent than xylazine, is displacing tranq in the fentanyl supply. Here's the science, the scheduling fight, and why test strips matter more than ever.

03Harm ReductionJul 28

Substance Spotlight: Inhalants Are the Overdose Crisis Nobody Is Watching, and It's Getting Younger

2024 NSDUH data shows 3.2 million Americans used inhalants in the past year, with teen rates far outpacing adults. A wave of 2026 state legislation targets flavored nitrous oxide products like Galaxy Gas.

04Harm ReductionJul 28

The Drug That's Replacing Xylazine Is Already Winning, and Your Test Strip Can't See It

Medetomidine, a veterinary sedative far more potent than xylazine, has displaced xylazine in Philadelphia's drug supply in under two years — and standard test strips don't detect it.

05Harm Reduction

Earlier in Harm Reduction

Every piece in this section, most recent first.

Harm Reduction

Naloxone Still Reverses Fentanyl. It Doesn't Touch What's Being Cut Into It Now.

More in Harm Reduction

Xylazine Was the Adulterant Everyone Learned to Test For. Medetomidine Is 300 Times Stronger, and the Government Just Defunded the Strips That Catch It

Substance Spotlight: Inhalants Are the Overdose Crisis Nobody Is Watching, and It's Getting Younger

The Drug That's Replacing Xylazine Is Already Winning, and Your Test Strip Can't See It

A Thousand People Watched Someone Overdose. Peers With Naloxone Saved 83 Percent of Them.

The Ketamine Clinic Boom Is About to Meet the Same Federal Prosecutor Who Ended Florida's Pill Mills

Cannabis Got Roughly Ten Times Stronger Since the 1990s. Nobody Rewrote the Warning Label to Match.

Earlier in Harm Reduction

Oklahoma's Syringe Law Died on Schedule. Washington Made Sure Nothing Would Replace It.

Naloxone Doesn't Touch It, and It's Already in Minnesota

SAMHSA Just Told Grantees Their Federal Money Can't Buy Test Strips Anymore. A New Study Put a Body Count on What That Means.

DEA Draws a Real Line Between Kratom Leaf and the Gas-Station Opioid Products Wearing Its Name

Charleston County Had 39 Overdoses This Month. Bystanders Carried the Antidote to Fewer Than Half.

Naloxone Doesn't Touch This One. Here's What's Actually in the Supply Now.

There's No Narcan for What Killed Michael Robins

The DEA Just Scheduled the Thing People Used to Get Off Opioids. It Built Them Nothing to Replace It.

FDA's New Psychedelic Trial Rules Don't Reach the Clinics Where Ibogaine Patients Are Dying

A Vending Machine in Maricopa County Is Already Reversing Overdoses This Summer

Meg Caldwell Bought It Legally Every Time. It Killed Her Anyway.

A Third OTC Naloxone Brand Won't Save Anyone Whose Kit Is in a Drawer at Home

Naloxone Doesn't Touch Tranq. Scientists Just Figured Out Why — and What Actually Does.

Oklahoma Had a Law That Was Working. Lawmakers Let It Die Anyway.

A GHB Overdose Cluster Killed One Person in Wellington Over a Single Weekend. The Trend Line Behind It Has Been Climbing for a Decade.

A Gift Card Cut Overdose Deaths by 41%. The VA Data Just Proved It Wasn't a Fluke.

She Died From a Can of Computer Cleaner. Arizona's Fix Is a Felony Charge — for the Next Buyer, Not the Can.

The FDA Just Let ZYN Say It's Safer Than Cigarettes. The Brain Circuit That Makes That Technically True Is Also Why Quitting Nicotine Pouches Is Its Own Fight.

DEA Just Scheduled an Opioid Ten Times Stronger Than Fentanyl. Your Test Strip Won't Catch It.

The DEA Learned From 2016 — This Time It's Only Banning Half the Plant

Jails Are Killing People With a Drug Withdrawal They Refuse to Treat as Medicine

SAMHSA Made It Cheaper to Die Than to Know What You're Dying From

SAMHSA Just Made It Cheaper to Die Than to Know What You're Dying From

The Jails Were Finally Learning to Treat Opioid Withdrawal. Then Medetomidine Showed Up.

SAMHSA Harm Reduction Resources

People in Drug Treatment Smoke at 4x the General Rate. It's Been an Afterthought for Decades.

Eight Weeks Without Federal Test Strip Funding: What Harm Reduction Programs Look Like Now

Three Brands of OTC Naloxone Now Exist. Competition Alone Won't Save Lives.

The Line Between Life and Death Cost a Dollar, and SAMHSA Just Cut It

SAMHSA Cut Fentanyl Test Strip Funding. The Timing Couldn't Be Worse.

69,973 Deaths. The Number That Proves Harm Reduction Works—and the Policy Quietly Undoing It.

Responding to the Emerging Threat of Xylazine

The Drug Inside the Drug: How Medetomidine Is Breaking Every Overdose Response Playbook

The Strips That Won't Be Replaced

After Fentanyl: The DEA Just Scheduled Another Ketamine Analog. Here’s What’s Already Replacing It.

What Happens When You Give People With Severe AUD Their Daily Drinks

Cychlorphine Is in the Supply and Your Test Strips Won't Catch It

Six Weeks After SAMHSA's Test Strip Ban, Here's What It Looks Like on the Ground

The April Memo That Ended the Test Strip Era

Federal Grantees Have Thirty Days

Xylazine's Treatment Gap: Why 'Tranq' Wounds and Withdrawal Still Lack a Clinical Playbook

SAMHSA Bans Federal Funding for Fentanyl Test Strips and Clean Syringes

SAMHSA Bars Fentanyl Test Strips and Syringes From Federal Block Grant Spending

The Harm Reduction Rollback: How SAMHSA's New Directives Are Cutting Off Xylazine Wound Care

When the Safety Net Is Cut: SAMHSA's Test Strip Ban and the Unraveling of America's Harm Reduction Infrastructure

SAMHSA Defunded Test Strips Three Weeks Before Arizona Posted a 17% Overdose Increase. The Timing Matters.

Galaxy Gas Litigation Is Maturing. The Inhalant Regulatory Vacuum Isn't Closing.

DEA Says the Drug Supply Has Outpaced Naloxone Again — This Time It's Cychlorphine

DEA Advisory: Fentanyl Mixtures Are Outpacing Naloxone

Galaxy Gas, Oregon HB 3447, and the slow-motion crackdown on recreational nitrous oxide

More than test strips: what SAMHSA's April 24 letter signals about the next chapter of harm reduction

Federal funding pulled from fentanyl test strips: what that means on the ground

Naloxone vending machines and $19 OTC Narcan: the new harm-reduction infrastructure