It's National Fentanyl Awareness Day, and Cheddar News reporter Ashley Mastronardi has hit the streets to learn more about some of the debates swirling around the issue, such as whether fentanyl testing strips should be available at restaurants. 

It's National Fentanyl Awareness Day, and Cheddar News reporter Ashley Mastronardi has hit the streets to learn more about some of the debates swirling around the issue, such as whether fentanyl testing strips should be available at restaurants.&nbsp;

Wake Up With Cheddar

New York City Taco Spot Offers Fentanyl Testing Strips 

Welcome back, everyone to wake up a chatter and bake up a chat and I'm Hannah do thank you so much for joining us. So today is National fentaNYL Awareness Day. This is an opportunity to highlight that fentaNYL deaths still steadily on the rise here in the United States and now restaurants and bars all over the country are now offering fentaNYL testing strips to help their customers test for that deadly substance. Our Ashley Matti has more for us on this is a buzzy taco spot in Manhattan's Lower East side that serves up fish tacos, free chips. And now fentaNYL testing strips. Owner Marcus Tirado is part of a growing number of restaurant and bar owners across the country offering diners this unique menu item. They first had to see it. They started asking questions about it and they were like, ok, what is that? And we advised them that it's basically a fentaNYL test kit to test any type of drug. They get surprised and they're like, ok, cool. Let me take one. Experts say the fentaNYL testing kits can test any substance for fentaNYL that can be broken down into a powdered form such as Xanax and marijuana release recovery founder and fentaNYL expert Zach Clark says these strips are essential since fentaNYL deaths are on the rise. According to the CDC. As of October 2022 more than 100,000 people had died from drug overdoses. That year, many of them fentaNYL related a bar in a club is more likely to see an overdose from drugs than a fire. So if they're going to have fire extinguishers on site, on a very fundamental level, they need to have testing strips so that if their patrons are using drugs, they know whether or not it's laced with fentaNYL. FentaNYL testing strips are still illegal in almost half of the US because of old drug paraphernalia laws. One New Yorker we spoke to thinks they should be banned from places also offering alcohol. Could they possibly offer at another establishment that does not serve another addictive product? But Toto disagrees, he says he is providing a service to the neighborhood he's lived in for the past 15 years. It's all about the neighborhood and whatever I can do as a business owner to help out the neighborhood and of course, to minimize any type of overdosing or death. FentaNYL testing strips are not only available at some bars and clubs, you can also pick them up from non profit organizations or order them. Amazon dot com. Fish is up in Manhattan, Ashley Masar Cheddar News. And by the way, we should note a pack of just 10 of these strips over on Amazon cost less than $20. But a good thanks to Ashley Masar for investigating this for us such important information. And again, every single one of us is affected. In some way, we know someone who might be suffering from and look, we need to see more availability of things like Narcan, especially available for people as well for stuff like Narcan. Saved a family member's life in my, in a few years ago in my life.