{"id":7116,"date":"2022-01-27T04:23:10","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T04:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/27\/cops-new-favorite-junk-science-is-pretending-being-anywhere-near-fentanyl-will-literally-cause-them-to-die\/"},"modified":"2022-01-27T04:23:10","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T04:23:10","slug":"cops-new-favorite-junk-science-is-pretending-being-anywhere-near-fentanyl-will-literally-cause-them-to-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/27\/cops-new-favorite-junk-science-is-pretending-being-anywhere-near-fentanyl-will-literally-cause-them-to-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Cops’ New Favorite Junk Science Is Pretending Being Anywhere Near Fentanyl Will Literally Cause Them To Die"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

from the ‘assault’-means-anything-that-harms-a-cop,-even-if-the-cop-only-imagines<\/i> dept<\/h3>\n

\nThe longer we live, the more we become accustomed to cop fiction<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nWe live and let (our rights) die when cops swear in courts they smelled jazz cigarettes<\/a> while engaging in a pretextual stop. Who can challenge that? A cop says he smelled weed. The defendant says no he didn’t. Who’s more believable? The cop with the nose or the person accused of multiple felonies?\n<\/p>\n

\nIf cops need an assist, they can always call in another witness that can’t be cross-examined: a drug dog<\/a>. The dog “alerted” — something that means a breed domesticated to please did nothing more than please its handlers. Courts will, again, often grant deference to “testimony” that can’t be challenged<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe drug warriors of the USA are always in search of the next useful fiction — something that can be written down on reports, delivered in statements in the press, but never objectively examined by a court of law. That new fiction involves the latest public enemy number one: fentanyl.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhat cops can’t understand is immediately converted into a threat. Brushing aside medical and scientific expertise, cops are now claiming simply breathing the same air as fentanyl is the equivalent of a death sentence — especially for cops serving bog standard drug warrants. Suddenly, sweeping a house during warrant service is a potential death sentence for officers, no matter how much they’ve outmanned and outgunned the opposition.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe irrational fear of a drug that drug warriors apparently don’t understand has resulted in all sorts of amazing claims by officers<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nEvery year, police officers claim to have suffered near-fatal overdoses after accidentally touching fentanyl, a synthetic opioid more powerful than morphine or heroin.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cDeputy Nearly Dies of Fentanyl Overdose,\u201d read<\/a> a headline from the Sacramento Bee this summer. \u201cOfficer Exposed to Fentanyl & Transported to Local Hospital,\u201d stated<\/a> a press release from the Santa Rosa Police Department in 2020. \u201cPolice Officer Overdoses After Brushing Fentanyl Powder Off His Uniform,\u201d read<\/a> the headline on a CNN story from 2017.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\nBut there\u2019s something off about this seeming epidemic of accidental overdoses: It is virtually impossible to overdose simply by touching or getting too close to fentanyl. Doctors and toxicologists warn that the hype around this perceived threat is harming overdose victims, taxpayers, and first responders.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nIf you ask cops, the mere existence<\/em> of fentanyl is threatening cops’ lives. If you ask medical professionals, cops are overstating the threat posed by the drug.\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nAccidental overdose by skin exposure \u201cis chemically and physically implausible,\u201d<\/strong> said Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist and addiction medicine specialist who serves as an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\nDr. Andrew Stolbach, an emergency physician and medical toxicologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said, \u201cIt’s not possible to overdose on fentanyl by touching it. If it was absorbed well through the skin, people wouldn\u2019t inject it and snort it in order to get high.\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nGiven this disconnect between cops’ claims and medical professionals’ assertions, the only logical conclusion would be for cop shops to tell their drug warriors to stop being so melodramatic. Instead, cops are ignoring the science and allowing their imaginations to act as the basis for serious criminal charges. Welcome to post-sci fi America, where cops are able to secure felony charges based solely on their inability to understand drug interactions.\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nDespite this, people who use the drug are facing serious legal repercussions \u2014 such as charges of assault or endangerment of officers \u2014 for supposedly causing these impossible overdoses.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cPeople should not be in jail for imaginary crimes,\u201d [Dr. Ryan] Marino said.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nLook, I don’t have a problem with cops accessing their drug warring spank banks. My complaint is that their mastubatorial fantasies can take real years<\/em> off real people’s<\/em> lives. And they’re able to do this because, for the most part, the most powerful parts of our government are unwilling to challenge cops and their narratives. Instead, courts and lawmakers cut cops all sorts of slack under the assumption that cops should be given every opportunity to be wrong.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe man in the anecdote quoted above was sentenced to 6.5 years in jail — a charge predicated on nothing more than an officer’s statements that he didn’t feel quite right after irresponsibly handling evidence.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis delusion infects every level of law enforcement, from the local cops who overreacted to a successful drug bust in Bickel’s case to DEA agents who think nothing of throwing US citizens under the criminal justice wheel just because its agents aren’t willing to read or comprehend information about drugs and drug interactions.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe good news is the mass hysteria encouraged by all levels of law enforcement reached its nadir when the San Diego Police Department released body cam footage it obviously hoped would show the public how dangerous exposure to fentanyl can be. This backfired spectacularly, exposing the San Diego PD and its PR wing as a bunch of Streisands in search of clicks — an effort immediately undermined by hundreds of medical experts.\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nOver 400 physicians, nurses, and public health researchers signed a letter<\/a> demanding retractions from the major outlets that credulously repeated the department\u2019s claim. They highlighted the 2017 findings of a joint American College of Medical Toxicology and American Academy of Clinical Toxicology task force, which found that \u201cincidental dermal absorption is very unlikely to cause opioid toxicity,\u201d and \u201ctoxicity cannot occur from simply being in proximity to the drug.\u201d<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nWho knows what really happened to this officer who claimed to be severely damaged by momentary exposure to an illicit substance? One unavoidable assumption is that years of claiming fentanyl can kill or maim on contact resulted in this officer reacting poorly to a stimulus he had been told repeatedly was instantly deadly. What was caught on camera was likely more panic attack (prompted by unscientific police training) than reaction to the substance cops had yet to determine was actual fentanyl. Dramatic as fuck<\/a>, but so are any number of actors who have been provided with instructions on motivation during certain scenes. (As well as official deference when accused of domestic violence<\/a>, but I digress\u2026)\n<\/p>\n

\nCops are flopping. We’re paying the salaries of a bunch of badged-up Bill Laimbeers<\/a> who use their imagination and playacting to turn their carelessness at crime scenes into felony assault charges. We’ve posted nothing but losses since the inception of the Drug War. Nearly 50 years down the road, cops are expecting us to credit them with trash time scoring just because they can pretend to collapse when faced with actual work. LOL. Fuck them and the piss poor imagination they rode in on.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\"Hide<\/p>\n
\n

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone\u2019s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.<\/p>\n

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites \u2014 especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.<\/p>\n

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying\/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support<\/a>. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise \u2014 and every little bit helps. Thank you.<\/p>\n

\u2013The Techdirt Team<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Filed Under: cops<\/a>, drug warriors<\/a>, exaggeration<\/a>, fentanyl<\/a>, overdose<\/a>, police<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n