Sen. Cornyn hosts Dallas roundtable on fentanyl, touts bill to decriminalize test strips

This tale is a part of The Dallas Morning News’ monthlong series on how fentanyl has affected our community.

Sen. John Cornyn wears a grey rubber bracelet underneath the cuff of his get dressed blouse.

It is inscribed with angel wings and the adage, “One Pill Can Kill.” It used to be given to him by way of Ryan Vaughn, whose daughter Sienna died from fentanyl poisoning this year. He met Vaughn at a news convention this spring at R.L. Turner High School, the place scholars have overdosed and died from the drug, disguised as not unusual prescribed drugs like Percocet and Xanax.

“These are some of the most emotional events that I’ve ever been to,” Cornyn advised The Dallas Morning News in an unique interview Monday following a the city corridor with space leaders and advocates. “As a parent myself, the idea of losing a child due to … an accidental overdose is such a compelling issue.

“They’re just very sad stories, and I think should be entirely preventable.”

The Texas Republican has prioritized the battle in opposition to fentanyl. Monday’s tournament at an Old East Dallas hearth station used to be a minimum of the 3rd roundtable the U.S. senator has hosted within the space since ultimate fall. This summer time, he offered bipartisan expenses that might enlarge get entry to to naloxone, an opioid overdose-reversal drugs, and explain federal legislation to legalize fentanyl test strips.

A equivalent effort to decriminalize test strips — that are thought to be drug paraphernalia — stalled within the Texas Legislature this spring, in spite of reinforce from either side of the aisle. The strips are affordable and will stumble on whether or not the artificial opioid is hidden in medicine. Some state Republicans argued all the way through the legislative consultation that the strips may just inspire drug use.

“Obviously we don’t want our children taking any sort of illegal drug of any kind across the board as a parent,” Cornyn mentioned. “But if they take something that they think is probably not going to kill them, something relatively innocuous, for recreational or other purposes, they need to know whether this pill is contaminated with something that would kill them.”

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot agreed with the senator, including, “I don’t think that we’re contributing to an addiction problem. … What we’re doing is helping from one direction only solve a much larger problem and save a life here or there. If we can do that, we’re on a winning path.”

When requested how his bill, the Fentanyl Safe Testing and Overdose Prevention Act (STOP), might affect state statutes, Cornyn mentioned federal regulations can take priority.

“There’s no silver bullet,” he advised The News. “There’s no one thing that we could do to try to deal with this crisis. But to me, [test strips are] a small thing that we could do to help people protect themselves against inadvertent use of something that will kill them.”

Also on the roundtable have been Dallas-Fire Rescue leaders and Becky Tinney from the Recovery Resource Council. They mentioned the joint Overdose Response Team initiative, which connects individuals who have just lately overdosed with assets, together with rehab and Narcan, one logo of naloxone nasal spray.

Tinney wired the desire for inexpensive and obtainable psychological well being and substance-abuse remedy. Darilynn Cardona-Beiler with Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute mentioned the 2 are incessantly intertwined. She advocated for complete, holistic care and dismantling the stigma of drug use.

Cornyn mentioned the rustic has now not adequately handled psychological well being problems amongst adolescence. He sees alternatives to strengthen get entry to to psychological well being assets and remedy facilities. At a equivalent news convention within the spring, he proposed omnibus regulation that might reauthorize and strengthen the Drug-Free Communities Support Program to curb adolescence drug use; enlarge the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program to dismantle illicit drug operations; and make sure larger get entry to to remedy.

He additionally advocated Monday for enhanced U.S.-Mexico border safety, and slammed President Joe Biden’s management on the “failure to deal with the border in a realistic and appropriate way.”

Creuzot’s place of job gave forfeiture finances — seized belongings government imagine have been fascinated by against the law — to the Dallas police division for Narcan and fentanyl schooling campaigns. City council participants Paula Blackmon and Adam Bazaldua, who driven to get Texas on board with accumulating information on overdoses, have been additionally in attendance.

Others on the panel emphasised the desire for greater public consciousness. Cornyn’s roundtable comes at a time when a fentanyl-related death at a New York day care has made national news. Cornyn lauded The News’ “Deadly Fake” collection and different news retailers for serving to “get the message out,” including, “this is a conversation that parents need to have with their children.”

The News is publishing tales each day within the month of September on the fentanyl disaster in North Texas.

Cynthia Pursley, founder and CEO of LIVEGY, misplaced a stepson to fentanyl. Her group distributes naloxone to bars and eating places, fraternities and sororities, parent-teacher teams and outreach organizations.

“By criminalizing test kits and other harm reduction methods, we have removed a few safeguards,” Pursley mentioned. “[The STOP Act] is a safeguard. This is something that’s going to help us, those of us that are the boots-on-the-ground.”