CALDWELL, Idaho —
This story originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
In the previous year, multiple Canyon County sheriff deputies have been exposed to illegally produced fentanyl, an opioid drug, and required hospitalization.
Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue first shared the story on a segment of “Fox & Friends” that was published online on July 27.
Fentanyl is one of the most powerful opioids in the world, and is 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin, according to a fact sheet for first responders from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. The drug’s effects on local communities follows decades of the U.S. facing opioid addiction from over-prescribed pain medications.
Donahue’s “Fox & Friends” interview runs about four and a half minutes. The Idaho Press interviewed Donahue to have him expand on some of the statements he made in the segment, including what happened to the deputies and the scope of the fentanyl crisis in Canyon County.
DEPUTY EXPOSURE
Four sheriff’s deputies have required hospitalization following fentanyl exposure at the county jail in the previous year, Donahue told the Idaho Press by phone. The exposures occurred in two separate instances, two weeks apart, with two different pairs of deputies: two male deputies, and two female deputies, he said.
In both instances, the exposure happened during the intake process for people being brought into the jail, Donahue said. This process includes fingerprinting, as well as removing items such as jewelry from the person for safekeeping, he said.
In both instances, the deputies encountered an “alleged powder” in the possession of the person, and opened the vessel containing it, Donahue said. Donahue said he could not go into too much detail about what held the powder in the first incident, but in the second instance, it was a bag, he said.
When the vessels were opened, both of the deputies in both instances had an immediate reaction, Donahue said. Medical staff present at the jail administered Narcan, a drug that reverses opioid overdose, and the deputies were taken to a hospital, Donahue said.
One deputy in the first incident became unresponsive at the hospital and was given a Narcan drip, Donahue said.
Donahue noted that there has been conflicting information between the medical community and first responders about whether it’s possible for first responders to come in contact with enough fentanyl to cause an overdose.
According to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s fentanyl safety sheet for first responders, “the risk of absorbing enough fentanyl to cause an overdose is low.” It also says that “accidental skin contact with fentanyl is very unlikely to result in overdose symptoms,” and that “it takes 200 minutes of breathing in fentanyl to develop overdose symptoms.”
First responders should take precautions such as wearing nitrile gloves and an N95 or P100 mask to prevent exposure, the sheet says.
But Donahue said that in both instances, the deputies were wearing gloves and masks. He thinks that such guidelines offered by health institutions may apply best to medical-grade fentanyl, used in hospital settings and regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. In contrast, illegal fentanyl products taken from the streets can contain between 50% to 100% pure fentanyl, he said.
“Medical science doesn’t know how much pure or nearly pure fentanyl is going into a pill or a baggie … we don’t know and we certainly haven’t had time to study it,” he said.
Though some have suggested that officers are actually having a panic attack when exposed to fentanyl, Donahue is unconvinced.
“(Deputies are) trained in what they do,” Donahue said. “They don’t have a panic attack when a gun is pointed at them, you know what I mean?”
THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
In the “Fox & Friends” interview, Donahue says the county, despite being 2,000 miles from the southern U.S. border, is fighting a battle with local Mexican drug cartel operatives that import product, including driving it up from the southern border.
Though some pill presses produce fentanyl products locally, the vast majority is smuggled into the U.S., most often from the southern border by Mexican drug cartels, Donahue said. The fentanyl itself is often produced in China, Donahue said.
The Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking area’s 2023 Drug Threat Assessment report also points to China and Mexico as the primary sources of fentanyl products in the U.S. (Donahue is on the executive board of the organization, which is overseen by a group of officials working in the region.)
In the video segment, Donahue says that the county and the rest of the country are on the verge of collapse from fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
By phone, Donahue expanded on that statement, saying the sheer volume of illegal drugs is making it difficult to get ahead of the problem.
“It’s crushing the health and welfare field, the work force, and we’re just continuing to build, and build, and build addiction, and we can’t build buildings or resources fast enough to deal with the addiction in our country, and that’s being propelled and promoted by China, by the Mexican drug cartels,” Donahue said.
In Idaho, 44% of overdose deaths were caused by fentanyl in 2021, up from 12% in 2019, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s fentanyl safety sheet for first responders. In 2021, the Idaho State Police seized 125,000 fentanyl pills, an increase of 562% from 2020, the sheet said.
During the segment, Donahue’s video is put alongside video of people crossing the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, and being moved in and out of border patrol cars. The host opens the segment by relating the influx of people coming to the U.S. border with the fentanyl crisis.
U.S. foreign policy has played a role in destabilizing the Latin American region, with consequences such as poverty, food insecurity, and violence driving people to the border, according to an article from The Guardian.
The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 was both the U.S. saying no to interference by European powers in the Americas, and the beginning of the U.S. asserting its own foreign policy in Latin America.
In the latter half of the 20th century, the U.S. worked to prevent communist leaders from rising to power, instead propping up dictators who often violently maintained the divide between the powerful and the poor, according to the Guardian. Additional policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, have proved controversial for destabilizing food growing economies in Mexico, according to an article from The Counter.
When asked if relating increased migration with the fentanyl crisis is accurate, Donahue said yes. Though the vast majority of opioids are driven into the county by cartel members, anyone crossing the border is having to pay someone who has a connection to the cartels, he said. Further, the cartels may use migrants to smuggle in product to drop houses in the U.S., may traffic the migrants themselves for sex, and may keep people in indentured servitude working for the cartel to pay off the cost of bringing them to the U.S., Donahue said.
“It’s all part and parcel at this point,” he said. “It’s very accurate and it’s just incredible victimization of these poor people.”
Erin Banks Rusby is a reporter with the Idaho Press. She covers Canyon County, including agriculture, education, and government.
This story originally appeared in the Idaho Press. Read more at IdahoPress.com
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