Gov. Evers, in La Crosse, signs “tranq” testing strips bill, urged by Gundersen Dr. Eberlein, introduced by Rep. Billings

You can add Xylazine to the list of dangerous drugs that the state of Wisconsin is trying to guard citizens against.

While visiting a La Crosse fire station on Tuesday, Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill authorizing the use of Xylazine testing strips.

Xylazine is also known as “tranq,” and had been used for decades by veterinarians as a large animal tranquilizer. Now, however, it is being laced with other drugs, like fentanyl, with deadly results.

The chemical test strips can be used to detect Xylazine warning a user id its presence.

State Assembly Rep Jill Billings (D-La Crosse) introduced the test strip bill at the urging of Gundersen Health System physician Dr. Chris Eberlein, who has served on drug abuse committees for several years.

“We found that drug dealers are lacing it in other drugs,” Billings said, “and when someone overdoses on xylazine, Narcan does not work” as an antidote. “There’s no coming back.”

Evers’signing decriminalizes the use of the test strips.

The governor said the state reported that in 2022, 1,464 Wisconsin residents were killed by an opioid overdose, “and between the years 2020 and 2022, a count of opioid-related deaths in Wisconsin increased by nearly 19 percent.”

Evers signed the bill at Fire Station No. 2, near the UW-La Crosse campus. In March of 2022, Evers also came to La Crosse to sign a bill allowing the use of fentanyl testing strips.