We've been over this quite a few times. Every time local authorities have sought to push a panic around the opioid fentanyl, in fact. But it bears repeating: You 100% can not overdose on the powerful drug simply by being in the same room as it.
We've seen cops across the nation, including right here in our backyard, work themselves up into proper panic attacks over the possible existence of fentanyl in the same space as them. Now the fentanyl panic is being pushed into the living rooms of your parents and grandparents via the most effective organ of police propaganda in the United States: network cop procedurals.
A recent trailer for the CBS show FBI showed just how pernicious the "fentanyl as dirty bomb" narrative has become. In the clip, a suspect is stopped by agents and made to drop his bag. When they open the bag, they find a large amount of what they believe to be fentanyl. An agent stops the search, saying, "If that bag rips, we're all dead."
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Orange County Sheriff's Office deputies treat selves for overdose after alleged fentanyl exposure
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There are more than a few problems with this scene. We'll start from the beginning. Fentanyl cannot be distinguished from other powdered drugs with the naked eye. This is a large part of why it is so dangerous to drug users.
Moreover, you'd expect federal agents who are regularly tasked with crimes that cross state borders to be more comfortable around seeing drugs. And we apparently can't stress enough that overdosing from fentanyl exposure is a myth. That myth becoming so widespread that police across the country are falling out from panic attacks when they see baggies of unidentified drugs does not make it any more real.
