Cops Handling Fentanyl

About

Cops Handling Fentanyl refers to various parodies of stories in which police departments report their officers suffered extreme side effects by merely handling the drug fentanyl, a powerful opioid, while on duty. The stories were questioned by medical professionals, who note that one cannot suffer physical side effects from fentanyl by merely touching the drug. This led to parodies that depict cops as being unnaturally weak to fentanyl in the early 2020s.

Origin

In the late 2010s and early 2020s, multiple stories about cops having extreme side effects from touching fentanyl were published online. One of the earliest was a May 2017 article from CNN,^[1] which reported that a police officer felt extreme side effects from brushing fentanyl off his uniform. In March 2019, Vox^[3] published a story explaining that one can't overdose from fentanyl by merely touching it.

Such stories started to gain traction online in August 2021 after the San Diego Sheriff's Office^[2] posted a video of an officer purportedly experiencing a fentanyl overdose after touching the drug (shown below). The tweet received many responses from users, including doctors, who noted that it was more likely the officer was suffering a panic attack, possibly induced because he did not have a clear understanding of how fentanyl works and was overly anxious.

Recently, a @SDSheriff Deputy was exposed to Fentanyl and nearly died of an overdose. If it wasn't for the quick-thinking of his Field Training Officer in administering Naloxone, that deputy would not be alive today. Watch our public safety video: https://t.co/4FzU7biD7j pic.twitter.com/vWjylpTm14

— San Diego Sheriff (@SDSheriff) August 5, 2021

Spread

On January 5th, 2022, Buzzfeed^[4] posted a piece dispelling the myth that it is possible to overdose from fentanyl by touching it. On March 27th, John Oliver went over the myth in an episode of Last Week Tonight.^[5]

On March 29th, the Orange County Sheriff's Office^[6] posted pictures of police officers getting into hazmat suits to handle fentanyl and shared an anecdote about how some police officers had touched fentanyl and were rushed to the hospital (shown below).

The tweet led to commentary and jokes about how the police view fentanyl. Twitter user and journalist Dell Cameron^[7] tweeted, "I handled fentanyl in a hospital & pain management clinic for 4 years. the only time I was trained to use decon equipment like this was in preparation for dirty bombs & anthrax. cops are having panic attacks," gaining over 2,000 retweets and 19,000 likes (shown below, left). HasanAbi joked, "cops get a big class passive (unaccountable murder) but they have -1000 dmg resistance to fentanyl. it’s cop kryptonite, they can’t even be in a room w fent or they spontaneously combust," gaining over 200 retweets and 4,200 likes^[8] (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References