Then the next thing dumped out is a bag of weed. Let’s say some fentnanyl-tainted cocaine touches a table or countertop. Somehow surfaces-a bag, a gloved hand, whatever-become contaminated with fentanyl, that later contaminates other drugs. The retail-level drug seller has a diversified offering: cocaine, mushrooms, maybe some MDMA as well as weed and pills. Though some drug users seek out fentanyl, and carry naloxone or other overdose agonists as a precaution, most theories of accidental fentanyl contamination go something like this. “Although the concern regarding adulteration of cannabis exists, there is no systematic monitoring or reliable data on its frequency or the magnitude of its effect,” they wrote. Even the report’s authors had no idea how likely fentanyl-tainted weed might be. The man kept testing positive for fentanyl-but then started testing clean “after changing the source from which he bought cannabis,” according to the report, the lone example of cannabis tainted by fentanyl in the public literature available on PubMed. Last summer, the Journal of the American Pharmacy Association published a case report that noted a 50-year-old man in treatment for opiate addiction. This suggests that if fentanyl-tainted cannabis exists, it is a rare occurrence, less reliable than a winning lottery ticket. Data consistently shows that opiate users figure heavily in the overdose crisis-and there is no apocalypse of overdoses among cannabis users. There are more than 200 million cannabis users in the world, according to the United Nations, compared to about 60 million opiate users. As for tainted cannabis killing people, McKee says she’s definitely heard about it and believes it’s real-but could not immediately name a specific incident. In the northeast, fentanyl is absolutely in everything as well, according to harm reduction advocate and drug-policy reform Haley McKee, who says “heroin”-as in opiate drugs derived from poppy plants-no longer exists. If it is a myth, it’s one with legs enough to spread to Providence, Rhode Island. “Fentanyl and analogs are in pretty much all illegal drugs, except marijuana,” Cauchon said. In Ohio, he sees synthetic opioids tainting cocaine, methamphetamine, bunk pills-just about everything you can think of, with one notable exception: marijuana. ![]() "We don't know at this point and the reality is for me, why would somebody put an expensive drug in an unsuspecting person's marijuana? It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense,” said Mills, adding that a toxicology report won’t come out for another month or two, and right now, the only “evidence” that tainted cannabis killed somebody is a rumor on social media.ĭennis Cauchon, the president of Harm Reduction Ohio, has been sounding the alarm over fentanyl contaminating other drugs since at least 2019. However, standing before the television cameras on July 30, he was more circumspect, and went as far as to doubt the tainted weed theory as unsubstantiated speculation. ![]() On Twitter, police Chief Mills used his official account to post that the Santa Cruz overdose did happen after smoking fentanyl and marijuana together. Whether it happened in Santa Cruz-well, actually, nobody can say. (Which means legal users need not worry: Even drug-averse public health authorities and addiction-medicine centers agree that there is certainly no fentanyl in legal, commercial cannabis.) Neither the United Nations nor the US National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA) mention fentanyl-tainted weed in their recent publications on the overdose epidemic, although the Santa Cruz County Health Department reports that fentanyl has indeed “been found… even in illicit cannabis.” (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Getty Images Twenty-five peopole living in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Arizona and New Jersey have been indicted in connection with the case. According to the attorney general's office, it is the largest seizure in the 46 year history of New York's Organized Crime Task Force. New York State Attorney General Eric Scheiderman's office announced Friday that authorities in New York state have made a record drug bust, seizing 33 kilograms of heroin and 2 kilograms of fentanyl. press conference regarding a major drug bust, at the office of the New York Attorney General, Septemin New York City. NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 23: Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, are displayed before a.
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