Federal policy bars use of grant funds for distributing drug test strips to the public, prompting overdose concerns
In late April, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration banned the use of federal grants for distributing fentanyl and other drug test strips directly to the public. The policy, communicated in a letter to local health departments and nonprofits, also restricts federal funding for clean-needle programs, drug paraphernalia such as pipes, and specialized overdose-monitoring hotlines. Federal funds may still be used to provide test strips to law enforcement, EMTs, and other medical professionals.
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The new federal restriction emerged after years of expanded harm reduction programming aimed at reducing overdose deaths. In late April, SAMHSA sent a letter to local health departments and nonprofits explaining that the Trump administration considers distributing test strips and similar harm reduction tools to drug users to be practices that "facilitate illicit drug use and are incompatible with Federal laws."
The policy shift has drawn attention in Baltimore, where the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition has distributed benzodiazepine, fentanyl, xylazine, and medetomidine test strips at clinics, bars, and neighborhood events following a series of mass overdose incidents in the Penn North neighborhood in 2025. In one of those incidents, more than two dozen people were hospitalized after being found unresponsive; follow-up testing showed the street drugs contained high levels of N-methylclonazepam, a benzodiazepine that does not respond to opioid overdose reversal drugs such as naloxone.
The Trump administration's position, as described by HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard, is that federal taxpayer funding should go to "effective, common-sense solutions that have been proven to save lives" and move people toward recovery, with naloxone distribution cited as a preferred approach. The policy does not ban test strip distribution by nonprofits outright; organizations may continue the practice using non-federal funding.