Saturday, August 7, 2021

"Are people really falling ill from touching fentanyl? In most cases, scientists say no"

A Stat News article from 2017.

NBC today:

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department released body camera video of [a] July 3 incident Thursday, more than a month after the seizure of what deputies said was confirmed to be synthetic opioid fentanyl, a drug that has defied border barriers and boosted annual overdose deaths here by 200 percent last year.

The department billed the video as a cautionary tale about just how potent fentanyl, known for inspiring hazmat responses to suspected drug houses, can be.

"My trainee was exposed to fentanyl and nearly died," [a corporal] said in the video.

While the sheriff's department stands by the video as an archive of what one of the world's deadliest street drugs can do just by being in its presence, some experts see it as an improbable, if not impossible, incident.