{"id":862,"date":"2026-05-12T12:41:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=862"},"modified":"2026-05-12T12:41:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:41:27","slug":"trumps-sudden-cut-in-substance-testing-is-going-to-kill-people-experts-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=862","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s sudden cut in substance testing is \u2018going to kill people\u2019, experts warn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Samhsa said funding cannot be used to purchase or distribute fentanyl test strips or other drug test kits<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/trump-administration\">Trump administration<\/a>\u2019s decision to restrict use of federal funds for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/fentanyl\">fentanyl<\/a> test strips, in what officials described as a \u201cclear shift away from harm reduction\u201d, could have fatal consequences, experts and critics have warned.<\/p>\n<p>The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Samhsa) issued <a href=\"https:\/\/www.samhsa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/dear-colleague-letter-upated-hr-funding-guidance.pdf\">an open letter<\/a> in April ordering an end to the use of its funding for all substance testing strips, including fentanyl, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2023\/mar\/30\/xylazine-drug-overdoses-fentanyl\">xylazine<\/a> and medetomidine, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/dec\/22\/philadelphia-kensington-drug-medetomidine\">latest novel street drug<\/a> to wreak havoc across the US.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/12\/fentanyl-test-strips-samhsa-funding\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Samhsa said funding cannot be used to purchase or distribute fentanyl test strips or other drug test kits The Trump administration\u2019s decision to restrict use of federal funds for fentanyl &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=862\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}