As much as illegal drug use has been discouraged in Connecticut, efforts have been made to make sure those who do use, do it as safely as possible.
That has been especially true when it comes to fentanyl, which the state said caused 86% of all fatal overdoses in Connecticut in 2022.
Initiatives to better prevent, treat and understand, potential overdoses from the drug fentanyl have improved in our state.
But people on the front lines have said more could still be done to prevent unnecessary deaths.
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Mark Jenkins, executive director of the Hartford-based Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance, showed us a modified mobile toolbox that is one of dozens of “rover” kits his organization designed.
His team has driven these out on the streets every night and day, bringing everything from unused smoking pipes to fentanyl testing strips and more to help users stay safe.
Jenkins gave us an inventory… “A two-gallon sharp container, syringes, antibiotic ointment, tourniquets, two sizes of bandages, sterile alcohol pads.”
Connecticut also has harm reduction centers across our state. People have come to the centers to have their drugs checked for the presence of fentanyl with fentanyl test strips.
River Rose, program manager with the Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance said, “It's super easy, it allows you to be able to say, ‘hey, is there fentanyl inside of my drugs.’”
The centers have gone one step further. People can also learn how much fentanyl is in their drugs - key to preventing an overdose - with a device that can detect substances based on the light reflected from its crystals.
Rose said, “We have ours here that are doing drug checking. We have drug checking in New London, and we have drug checking in New Haven right now. So, you know, and I believe we have drug tracking that is going to be happening in the Northwest sometime soon.”
These newer, detailed analyses haven’t caught everything though.
People from the Harm Reduction Alliance said fentanyl does not disperse evenly through a substance, which can lead to concentrated, deadly doses.
“That's where those other parts of harm reduction, like not using alone, like making sure you have naloxone are super important. Because just knowing what's in your substance is not enough,” Rose said.
It’s also why State Senator Dr. Saud Anwar, a pulmonary specialist, said harm reduction centers should also be able to allow people to use their drugs in a supervised, safer setting.
Anwar said, “In New York with OnPoint, a center that was created the first one in the United States, they have been able to have in a one-year duration, they had 70,000 episodes of use of drugs with zero deaths.”
The senator said our state has no appetite to allow supervised consumption because safe injection sites are illegal federally.
“I see young people, older people, different people dying, because of the fact that we have a law at the federal level that does not allow them to have safe injections,” Anwar said.
Anwar added our state’s congressional delegation is on board with safe injection sites, but so far, it’s a tough sell elsewhere.
