The deadly drug “rainbow fentanyl”

The deadly drug “rainbow fentanyl”

Da'Lyjsha Bentley, Staff Writer

There is a new disguised drug that goes by the name “rainbow fentanyl.”  This is an extremely dangerous drug that can kill a person even with a touch of the smallest amount. With Halloween coming up, some are worried that rainbow fentanyl could be snuck into children’s candy.

NBC 15 News states, “For decades parents have been urged to check their children’s Halloween candy after a night of trick-or-treating…but this year, parents’ Halloween scare is ‘rainbow fentanyl’.”

This is very concerning for parents because a lot of parents are worried that their child may come in contact with this drug. One parent Katie Strange says, “People are telling me ‘no drug dealers are going to give you their drugs,’ ‘drug dealers aren’t going to try and kill your kids.’ Well as somebody who knows three people that have died from Fentanyl overdoses within the last six months, I don’t want to hear it.”

NBC 15 News also says how every nine minutes someone is lost to a fentanyl overdose, and the victim is usually not a drug addict; victims are usually a person experimenting or a young person getting talked into taking an unidentified pill.

 

The Drug Enforcement Administration talks about how rainbow fentanyl and powder comes in different shapes and sizes. They also state, “The men and women of the DEA are relentlessly working to stop the trafficking of rainbow fentanyl and defeat the Mexican drug cartels that are responsible for the vast majority of the fentanyl that is being trafficked in the United States.”

Fentanyl is a prescribed medication for pain but people are making it in labs, which makes it dangerous. The public health alert says people may just think it’s some kind of candy when really it’s a pile of fentanyl pills that’s deadly.

It is also said that fentanyl can also sometimes be mixed with other illicit drugs which can make it look like a prescription. The Public Health Alert also says to not take it if you are not prescribed by a licensed or professional or given it by pharmacy because you cannot tell if it is fake or legit.

Officer Joe Leskovec,  resource officer at MMS, says that fentanyl has been a problem in the Mayfield community for about a decade. He also implied that Mayfield has had several overdoses and a lot of them are due fentanyl over the last several years.

“It has affected the community enough that it is in all of our training courses, and they now sell Narcan over the counter at drug stores.”

He also stated how it is not only a safety hazard for a community but also for first responders as well. Cops have come in contact with fentanyl and had to use Narcan to avoid death. Even a tiny amount can be lethal.

Officer Leskovec also says if fentanyl is given to you by a drug dealer and you pass away that would be homicide and that drug dealer is responsible for your death. So what starts off as a simple drug deal can turn into a homicide investigation.

Fentanyl is one of the most dangerous drugs and recent trends show it is on the rise.