Overdose RADAR Act

Overdose Response Action Data for Actionable Reforms Act or the Overdose RADAR Act

This bill explicitly exempts the sale of fentanyl test strips from criminal penalties under federal law. It also establishes grants and expands agency efforts to treat opioid overdoses and improve related monitoring and data.

Specifically, the bill exempts the sale, interstate transportation, import, or export of fentanyl test strips from criminal penalties under the Controlled Substances Act. (Fentanyl test strips are used to detect the presence of fentanyl in drugs.)

Additionally, the bill allows the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to provide grants for trained personnel at elementary and secondary schools to administer drugs and devices for emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdoses. The bill also expands existing SAMHSA grants to allow state, local, and tribal entities to provide training to health care providers on how to administer such drugs and devices.

Also, SAMHSA may award grants to state and local entities to improve data and surveillance (e.g., postmortem toxicology testing) on opioid-related overdoses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must temporarily award grants to municipal wastewater treatment facilities to analyze the prevalence of illicit substances (e.g., fentanyl) in wastewater.

Finally, the Office of National Drug Control Policy must issue guidance for states and localities that overdose deaths should be recorded as homicides if there is evidence that the overdose was not self-induced and intentional.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov