Abigil Alvarez was only 18 years old when she died from fentanyl overdose.
Her father, Adolph, believes a fentanyl test strip could have saved her life.
“I don’t want this to ever happen to anybody else’s family,” he told WFAA.
Adolph is in favor of decriminalizing the test strips, which are currently illegal under Texas law. The strips are inexpensive pieces of paper that can tell a person whether the drug they’re about to take contains fentanyl.
Democratic State Senator Nathan Johnson is one of several lawmakers pushing to legalize the strips this session.
“We have a very unproductive prohibition on something that could save lives,” Johnson told WFAA.
In the past, similar proposals have failed. Opponents argued allowing a person to test one drug for another effectively condoned drug use.
“To the contrary!” Johnson said. “We want people to get past this episode in their lives when they are using drugs. But they can’t do it if they’re dead.”
