A bipartisan bill that would expand testing for fentanyl during emergency room drug screenings could have a path through Congress thanks to its support in both chambers, NBC News reported.
The bill would instruct the Department of Health and Human Services to send guidance to hospitals on including fentanyl testing during routine emergency room drug screens, which is required in California and Maryland but not by any federal laws.
Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., along with House Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif.; Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio; and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., reintroduced the legislation on Tuesday. The bill is known as "Tyler's Law," after Tyler Shamash, a California teenager who died from a fentanyl overdose in 2018.
Juli Shamash, his mother, said in a statement that when her son overdosed, she was initially told he had tested negative for drugs, not knowing that the standard drug screen does not test for fentanyl.
"Had we known, we could have sent him to a place with a higher level of care, instead of the sober living home where he died," she said.
"This bill will save lives in situations like Tyler's, as well as in cases where people are brought into an ER for an overdose of one substance, but they unknowingly consumed fentanyl from a poisoned product," she added.
"Our bipartisan legislation honors Tyler's memory by bringing California's updated standard of including fentanyl in emergency room screenings to the federal level. Even one preventable death is too many," Padilla said in a statement.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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