SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Fentanyl test strips are set to be required at all California State Universities and community colleges after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 461 into law.
Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino) said he wrote the bill to save students from deadly fentanyl poisonings.
“This is a bill aimed at saving student lives and reducing the skyrocketing number of opioid fatalities among our young people. One out of every five California youths aged 15 to 24 who died in 2021 were killed by a fentanyl overdose – either through the actual fentanyl use or by consuming another drug laced with fentanyl," Ramos said in a statement.
It also requests that University of California campuses comply with the requirements.
Newsom signed several bills into law over the weekend and vetoed others.
Some of the bills Newsom vetoed include a measure that would have made California the first state in the nation to outlaw discrimination based on caste and another that would have decriminalized the possession and use of some hallucinogens, including psychedelic mushrooms. He also signed several into law, notably a sweeping mandate requiring large businesses to disclose a wide range of planet-warming emissions.
Find some of the other bills Newsom signed into law so far HERE.
