Reminder: Fentanyl Can't Hurt You Unless You Ingest It

 

Wild rumors are circulating in my state (bolstered by police, of course) that people are "putting fentanyl on car door handles" and in USPS mail.  Let me break down the numerous reasons that's NOT A THING:

1.) Cost.  Drugs cost money, and no dealer/user/manufacturer is going to waste product in that way.  Just like the drugs-in-Halloween-candy rumors that spread annually, the same is true here.  Could it happen?  Yes, but it's highly unlikely.  And it wouldn't matter anyway, because...

2.)  Fentanyl has zero effect when touched, viewed up close or from a distance, inhaled in normal ambient amounts in the air or otherwise NOT ingested.  But-but-but, what about the cops who've gotten sick from touching it?  They haven't.  That's right:  every single instance of police fainting, getting sick or otherwise experiencing negative effects from simply handling or being near fentanyl turned out to be caused by anxiety--mass hysteria.  To date no officer has died or even tested positive for the drug after one of these "exposures".  According to that same study linked in the last sentence, "it would take 200 min of breathing fentanyl at the highest airborne concentrations to yield a therapeutic dose, but not a potentially fatal one."

So where does this misinformation come from?  To be fair, not only is fentanyl a highly potent drug, it also comes in the form of skin patches which likely contributes to the "you can OD from touching it" part of the myth.  But those patches are specially designed to hold the drug on the skin for hours, heat up the top dermal layer & slowly release the drug through a special delivery matrix.  A single Duragesic patch is to be worn for 3 days or more.  According to the package insert, it may take a full DAY for effects to be felt, as it takes a long time for enough drug to build up on the skin to be felt.  

In order to be dangerously affected from inhaling fentanyl, one would need to directly insufflate ("snort") the powder through a straw or similar.  And as you can see, it's not gonna affect you via the dermal route after handling even large amounts.  Simply washing your hands or wiping them off thoroughly would be sufficient to prevent problems.  So we can all relax about roving fentanyl killers spreading fentanyl paste on things for shits & giggles.

Now the same is not true for touching AND THEN INGESTING the powder.  If you handle large amounts of fentanyl & then put your hands in your mouth, you can expect a clinical response.  But you shouldn't be putting your unwashed hands in your mouth anyway.  Children have been sickened & died from touching & ingesting fentanyl powder--another reason to teach kids to keep their hands out of their mouths.  While your kid is unlikely to encounter fentanyl in their environment, putting unwashed hands in your mouth can lead to all kinds of illnesses ranging from stomach viruses to Hepatitis & E. coli.  You never can be too safe these days.

Buying street drugs--including good counterfeits or pills from a friend who may not know what they have--is the only way you're gonna come in contact with enough of the drug to die, and that IS a real threat.  Fentanyl has shown up in every class of drugs in N. America from opioids to stimulants, MDMA & benzodiazepines to unregulated marijuana vape pens.  Unless/until we legalize & regulate our drug market for purity, this problem will only get worse.  

So wtf is the thing in the photo above?  Nobody knows, but if I had to guess I'd say either some mechanism to help someone steal the car by preventing the owner from opening the door, or a prank.  Looks like a variation of this post from /r/insanepeoplefacebook.  

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