One of the hottest pieces of propaganda to come spilling from jowls of law enforcement over the past few years is that illicit-market marijuana is being laced with a dangerous and destructive opioid called fentanyl.<\/p>\n
The idea that drug dealers are intentionally adding this potent drug to pot so hapless children who get their hands on it suffer savage, sometimes fatal overdoses has become a new reefer madness. Even the\u00a0White House<\/a>\u00a0continues to perpetuate the myth with ignorance. Just weeks ago, Trump\u2019s opioid crisis czar Kellyanne Conway\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0reporters that fentanyl was showing up in \u201cheroin, marijuana, meth [and] cocaine.\u201d Conway resurrected this claim, apparently, because she is still using misinformation given to her by the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA).<\/p>\n The marijuana-fentanyl connection has been proven false, at least on a large scale. Even the DEA called it bogus \u2014 more on that later. But new twists on the subject are still popping up from time to time that only stand to confuse the public further.<\/p>\n One of our favorites comes from a recent\u00a0Facebook post<\/a>, in which someone suggests that fentanyl smells like popcorn when it burns. So, of course, they warn that if a person smokes marijuana and catches a whiff of American\u2019s favorite movie-time snack, that\u2019s a good indication they could be in serious trouble.<\/p>\n But all of this popcorn nonsense is absolutely false, according to fact-checking website\u00a0Truth or Fiction<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cNearly all information about fentanyl\u2019s scent indicated it was odorless or faintly powder-scented, not that it smells \u2018like popcorn,\u2019\u201d\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0author Kim LaCapria. \u201cThe inherent risk in such information being spread as \u2018better safe than sorry\u2019 [is] lulling recreational drug users into a dangerously false sense of security with respect to detecting contamination from drugs such as fentanyl.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0true is that fentanyl is a powerful synthetic\u00a0opioid<\/a>, designed as a post-surgical painkiller. Yet, for obvious reasons, it has found illicit market appeal. Those who enjoy the feel-good effects that come from popping OxyContin or shooting heroin are the primary customer base. It\u2019s also a drug that cartel operations have found much success with, because it is easier to produce than heroin \u2014 all of the supplies needed to manufacture it can be purchased relatively easily from online suppliers in China.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also true that fentanyl is now being found in other drugs \u2014 though some of those instances might be\u00a0exaggerated<\/a>\u00a0too. This is happening, according to a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0from NPR, either as a result of accidental contamination or intentionally, in order to get users hooked on other products. There is also a distinct possibility that fentanyl is being combined with other drugs in the pursuit of new highs.<\/p>\n While it is not beyond the scope of imagination to suggest that people are adding fentanyl or other opioids to marijuana as part of their personal preference \u2014 cannabis has been soaked in embalming fluid, mixed with PCP, cocaine, and more over the years \u2014 there is little benefit for the illicit drug industry to engage in this practice. These operations certainly aren\u2019t going to put fentanyl-laced marijuana into the market without charging some kind of premium.<\/p>\n But all of this talk is entirely hypothetical.<\/p>\n As we mentioned before, even the DEA says there hasn\u2019t actually been any marijuana found with traces of fentanyl in it. \u201cIn regard to marijuana, I\u2019m not familiar with that,\u201d DEA spokesman Melvin Patterson\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the Cincinnati Inquirer.<\/p>\n These comments echo DEA senior chemist Jill Head\u2019s remarks from earlier this year. According to Buzzfeed News, Head made a salient point in a National Drug Early Warning System\u00a0briefing<\/a>\u00a0in March: If fentanyl-laced marijuana was actually a trend across the nation, the death toll would be of an apocalyptic nature. After all, marijuana is the most commonly used substance \u2013 some 33 million people in both the legal and illicit markets consume it regularly. We\u2019d definitely be seeing more bodies.<\/p>\n So if fentanyl-laced pot isn\u2019t actually a thing, how did the rumors get started? Well, when it comes to the \u201cmisinformation\u201d that continues to be spread by the White House \u2013 using the data collected by NIDA \u2014 all of it is based on anecdotal evidence from local police departments. But all of those\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0were eventually proven to be false. Even the fact-checking site Snopes found\u00a0no evidence<\/a>\u00a0to suggest that this drug combination is not a legitimate concern.<\/p>\n In the end, we cannot trust the\u00a0police<\/a>\u00a0to deliver accurate reports over the kinds of drugs they are seeing out in the field.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this mistaken belief that law enforcement are experts on the drugs they are seizing,\u201d Northeastern University drug policy expert Leo Beletsky\u00a0told<\/a> BuzzFeed News. \u201cThat\u2019s just not the case, and that\u2019s part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, what\u2019s the weirdest rumor you\u2019re heard about cannabis sold on the illicit market?<\/p>\n The post Does Fentanyl-Laced Cannabis Smell Like Popcorn?<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
One of the hottest pieces of propaganda to come spilling from jowls of law enforcement over the past few years is that illicit-market marijuana is being laced with a dangerous and destructive opioid called fentanyl. The idea that drug dealers are intentionally adding this potent drug to pot so haplessContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,1385,1114,9686,53,738],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34500"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34501,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34500\/revisions\/34501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What the Nose Doesn\u2019t Know<\/h4>\n
Back to Reality<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Does Fentanyl-Laced Cannabis Smell Like Popcorn?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"