CALDWELL, Idaho — Fentanyl, it has been all over the news in the past few years. Specifically, there have been multiple articles about police officers overdosing on the drug while handling it during stops, searches and investigations.
Idaho medical and law enforcement circles are talking about the story of a Caldwell Police officer who said they “began to experience dramatic symptoms related to a fentanyl exposure, including the initial stages of losing consciousness” after arresting a man who they believe had fentanyl.
It’s a serious situation, one that sounds very dangerous, and there have been numerous articles espousing officers being exposed to fentanyl, leading to dramatic consequences. However, medical experts caution that the scenario sounds very, very implausible.
"So, I can only speculate, and I don't want to try to diagnose someone with something," Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine said. "What I can say definitively is that in this story and every other story like this, this is not a fentanyl overdose. You cannot give yourself Narcan if you are experiencing a fentanyl overdose.”
Marino has focused work on the science and realities of fentanyl exposure. He has followed claims of law enforcement being expose to fentanyl and having drastic reactions around the country. He said, the science just doesn’t support the stories.
Although, many people may think this drug is relatively new. according to the DEA, it was first made in 1959 and was then used in the 1960s as an anesthetic. The drug is distributed and legally manufactured in the United States and is still used today in hospitals and by doctors for pain management and surgeries.
Overdose on fentanyl, is becoming more common in the United States and there are distinct results as outlined by the DEA.
"Overdose may result in stupor, changes in pupillary size, cold and clammy skin, cyanosis, coma, and respiratory failure leading to death. The presence of triad of symptoms such as coma, pinpoint pupils, and respiratory depression are strongly suggestive of opioid poisoning," the DEA website states.
According to The National Library of Medicine, law enforcement needs to balance safety with proper information when dealing with fentanyl and that symptoms officers have described when thinking they are experiencing an overdose do not match with the symptoms of an actual overdose.
"Given the prevalence of synthetic opioids, law enforcement and emergency medical services (EMS) agencies have become increasingly concerned about potential exposures while responding to medical calls, crime scenes, or during drug raids. Reports of emergency responders developing symptoms after contact with these substances have described nonspecific findings such as “dizziness” or “feeling like body shutting down,” “dying” without objective signs of opioid toxicity such as respiratory depression. Law enforcement and EMS must balance safety with mobility and efficiency when entering and securing potential scenes where drugs are used, distributed, or produced," the article stated.
Marino and other experts maintain, touching fentanyl in powder or pill form won’t create an opioid overdose. Some have questioned if fentanyl could be ingested accidentally in another way.
“You would have to be in a wind tunnel with wind tunnel conditions and dunes of of thousands, if not millions of dollars worth of fentanyl powder for it to accidentally be inhaled," he said.
The idea that first responders can overdose from fentanyl exposure has also been questioned, and or debunked, by several other news sources, like CNN, The New York Times and The Independent.
To be very clear, Dr. Marino says the reactions officers report having are authentic, they just aren’t overdose reactions.
“Something that would be consistent with these kind of symptoms would be like anxiety reaction or kind of a panic attack, probably based on significant fear about this risk. And there's something else called the "nocebo" effect, which is like the negative side of the placebo effect. So, if you believe strongly enough that something can harm you, you will have real symptoms. And I do want to be clear that I believe these are real symptoms. I don't want to say that anyone is faking anything. It just is not a fentanyl overdose, and it is not scientifically possible to experiencing an overdose this way," Marino said.
He continues to speak out on stories like the Caldwell one because, he has found they are impacting first responders around the country.
“I have seen personally where people do not want to respond to someone who is having a real overdose because they are worried that if they get close and touch them, they will have this secondhand exposure, overdose themselves," Marino said. "We have never seen that happen. But I'm worried about the kind of downstream consequences that this misinformation has.”
This sentiment was echoed by Dr. Alicia Carrasco, Silver Team medical director, who said, after looking at the Caldwell Police Department press release, it seemed more likely that the officer could have been having an anxiety attack from being around the substance. She added that fentanyl panic goes viral with the spread of misinformation. Further that the American College of Toxicology has debunked many myths about fentanyl exposure and overdose in 2017.
"Fentanyl and its analogs are potent receptor agonists, but the risk of clinically significant exposure to emergency responders is extremely low," the study stated.
"Since social media can be more powerful than science, it looks like it is somehow still a thing people believe," Carrasco said.
“Law enforcement faces a lot of risks and encounters a lot of dangers on the job. And this is one area where they don't have to worry," Marino said."
The Caldwell Police Department had not responded to questions from KTVB at the time of publication.
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