Jersey City wants to provide testing strips for a pair of deadly drugs, as well as life-saving Narcan and COVID-19 tests, for free to residents with a 24-hour health kiosk in the heart of the city.
The city council is expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution to seek out quotes from companies to establish and operate an automated kiosk outside of the City Hall Annex, on 1 Jackson Square. The pilot program is expected to cost the city up to $44,000.
Paul Cate, director of the city’s division for disease prevention, told council members at Monday’s caucus meeting the “harm reduction” products will also include “test my drink” kits to ensure a drink is not spiked with a drug. He said Jersey City would be the first municipality in New Jersey with a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week kiosk.
The testing strips would allow drug users to determine is their drugs are laced with fentanyl or “tranq,” a veterinary tranquilizer with fentanyl-like effects.
“A lot of drugs are being cut with (fentanyl). The death rate is obviously through the roof,” Cate told council members. “The kiosk provides test strips and it will walk you through the entire process.”
City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione added COVID-19 test kits will also be included in the machines. She said the city health department hopes to expand the program to have one kiosk in each ward.
“This is one of the city’s many efforts (the Department of) Health and Human Services have introduced over the past year to leverage technology and provide tools for drug use prevention and intervention,” Wallace-Scalcione said. “Utilizing opioid settlement money, Jersey City’s kiosk program will be the first in the country to offer a new (federal) Food and Drug Administration-approved rapid fentanyl test along with Narcan, COVID testing, and other intervention strategies to help combat the addiction and overdose crisis gripping the nation.”
Fentanyl, a strong opioid, is commonly mixed with other drugs such as cocaine or heroin, making even a one-time use fatal. Tranq, or xylazine, is a sedative on animals such as horses, but it also has been mixed with fentanyl. Xylazine depresses the central nervous system, leaving users in a zombie-like state.
Cate told the councilmembers the test strips are ”relatively easy to use if you have never used ...,” but the instructions appear complex, according to the website for New York City, which is dealing with a tranq epidemic.
It involves putting 10 milligrams (mg) of your drugs in a clean, dry container, like a medicine measuring cup, or a plastic micro-scoop. Add 5 milliliters, or one teaspoon, of water and stir. Then place the test strip with the wavy side down in the water and let it absorb the water for 15 seconds. Then take the test strip out of the water and place it on a flat surface for five minutes before reading the results. Results must be read within 10 minutes of taking the strip out of the water.
“It’s still a good idea, but you almost need a educational campaign on how use this thing,” said Councilman Frank Gilmore, who represents Ward F, where the kiosk would be located.
The Drug Enforcement Administration found xylazine has risen in all four regions of the United States. The federal agency reported xylazine overdose deaths increased by 1,127% in the South, 750% in the West, more than 500% in the Midwest, and more than 100% in the Northeast of the United States.
The city hopes to unveil the first kiosk May 10, National Fentanyl Awareness Day, Cate said. The cost of the kiosk is covered by grant funding, he told the council.
“Ideally, we don’t have a drug problem, but there is,” Cate said. “I don’t think in this situation the approach is to be reactive, then the reaction is dealing with someone who is dead. It is to be preventative.”
Councilmembers expressed concerns about how the kiosk would be maintained and the possibility of being cleaned out by one person. But Cate said the company would limit the amount taken per interaction and could track the number of tests in the machine.
Gilmore and Yousef Saleh hope to see the project expand across the city. Councilman James Solomon said it is a “very worthy pilot,” to see how it works.
“I actually applaud the health department for this initiative,” Gilmore said Tuesday. “My only concern is are we going to be turning people away who are not identifying themselves? The (pilot program) is a game changer right here!”
“(Fentanyl) is a nationwide problem and we have to prepare as a city to provide these kinds of services,” Saleh said Tuesday.
