Arkansas organization to distribute 32 narcotic detecting devices to schools, law enforcement agencies | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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A nonprofit formed to distribute money from opioid litigation settlements on Wednesday said it will make 32 handheld narcotics analyzers available to school districts, colleges and law enforcement agencies as a way of gathering information on drugs and other potentially harmful substances circulating in various areas of the state.

The Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership, established in 2022 by the Arkansas Municipal League and the Arkansas Association of Counties, purchased the TruNarc devices in April with nearly $1 million in opioid settlement funds, the partnership's director, Kirk Lane, said.

"The face of drugs in our state changes rapidly, and you have to be able to keep up with it," Lane said at a news conference Wednesday.

"It's not been productive to figure out what happened last year. We've got to know what's happening right now, and that's the beauty of these devices."

According to provisional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Arkansas' reported fatal overdoses last year fell 13.7%, from 591 in 2022 to 510 in 2023, although the number remained above pre-pandemic levels.

Opioids were responsible for 308 of last year's reported deaths, down from 359 a year earlier.

The TruNarc devices can scan through glass or plastic and identify more than 530 narcotics, displaying the results on a screen within minutes, Lane said.

He said the devices will speed up investigations, which can be held up for months waiting for results from the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory.

"In our state, when you find a substance, and you don't know what it is, it usually takes three to six months to figure out what it is," Lane said. "With this technology that we're bringing forward and that we've invested into, you can find out within minutes what you're dealing with and where you're going forward ... It makes people utilizing these instruments safer, and it will give family answers quickly, and that's what it's all about."

Another benefit of the devices is their size, he said.

"It can be very portable. You can see how small it is," Lane said of the analyzer. "That's very useful."

School districts, colleges, drug task forces and city and county law enforcement agencies can apply now to receive a testing kit under the initiative, called the Sentinel Project, announced Wednesday, Lane said.

He said they can apply at any time while the devices are available. According to the partnership's website, it will try to ensure coverage throughout the state.

The website says the devices will remain the property of the partnership, and awardees will be required to report monthly data, stored internally on the devices, on what has been scanned.

"(We) will analyze that information and get resources to areas of concern very quickly, and also build a database in there about what substances are coming into the state or into cities and counties," Lane said.

The devices use a laser to identify substances, he said.

"In simple terms, (the device) sends a laser through the substance, which causes the substance to migrate and put off a chemical footprint, and then all the footprints of different chemicals are created in the database within each device, and it matches that to the library and (is) able to identify it similar to the way the state Crime Lab identifies stuff or federal crime labs identify stuff in that same concept."

Seventeen agencies throughout Arkansas already have a TruNarc testing kit, Lane said.

Tonya Soule, an investigator at the Lonoke County sheriff's office, said her agency purchased one about four years ago and uses it on a regular basis.

"I think that getting this out to more agencies and having it available for more individuals to utilize can help keep our communities safer, and it shows that we can come together as a team for the safety of everybody that we serve," Soule said.

She said a key benefit of the device is its ability to scan through plastic so officers don't have to touch the substances they are testing.

"We don't have to handle anything anymore," Soule said. "It allows us to keep it in the plastic and then in the bag, so it's safer for the community and it's safer for the deputies in the office of law enforcement to lower the risk of exposure."

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Arkansas organization to distribute 32 narcotic detecting devices to schools, law enforcement agencies | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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