Explaining his opposition to authorized marijuana a few years in the past, Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Fla.) warned that black-market weed is “laced with fentanyl.” When former President Donald Trump invoked “fentanyl laced marijuana” on Saturday, his logic made much more sense: He cited that hazard as a motive to assist Amendment 3, a Florida poll initiative that may legalize leisure marijuana in that state. However each arguments suffered from the identical flaw: So far as we will inform, “fentanyl laced marijuana” is an imaginary menace.
Since it’s a constitutional modification, Florida’s marijuana initiative would require assist from 60 p.c of voters to take impact. In two of three polls carried out this month, assist fell shy of that threshold. The third ballot put assist at 63 p.c, however the margin of error was plus or minus 4.6 proportion factors. In a Fact Social put up that implicitly endorsed Modification 3, Trump however took it with no consideration that voters will approve the initiative in November, and he provided just a few causes to welcome that final result.
“Somebody shouldn’t be a felony in Florida” for possessing marijuana “when that is authorized in so many different States,” Trump declared, saying such arrests “smash lives & waste Taxpayer {Dollars}.” He added that “nobody ought to grieve a beloved one as a result of they died from fentanyl laced marijuana.” It’s onerous to disagree with that assertion or with the implicit premise that marijuana bought by state-licensed dispensaries is apt to be extra dependable than marijuana bought from black-market sellers. However there isn’t any strong proof that anybody has ever “died from fentanyl laced marijuana.”
That situation is uncertain on its face. Changing or fortifying heroin with fentanyl, which is stronger and cheaper to supply, makes financial sense. So does urgent fentanyl into tablets disguised as ache tablets that promote for $5 to $25 every on the black market. However it’s not clear why pot sellers would surreptitously combine their product with fentanyl.
“Illicit-market weed sells for anyplace from $5 to $30 a gram in most states,” Leafly author Calvin Stovall noted in 2022. “Fentanyl is value about $40 per 25 microgram patch (the low-end dosage for a most cancers affected person treating extreme ache). A pure gram of fentanyl is value as much as $200. Meaning a weed vendor must spend $40 on a fentanyl patch, efficiently extract the drug from the patch, after which ‘lace’ a $30 gram of their greatest weed to stay as much as these fantasies. In a best-case financial situation, the vendor is dropping $10 on each sale. Worst case, they’re poisoning loyal prospects and losing fentanyl that would promote for extra at a decrease quantity.”
Stovall consulted a black-market pot vendor, who agreed that enterprise technique is extremely implausible. “You can also make cash off of fentanyl by the microgram, simply by slicing the dope with it,” the vendor mentioned. “Weed goes by the pound, although. So why put one thing costly in a less expensive product? And free of charge?” The vendor, who may barely include his laughter, added that “you undoubtedly needn’t combine them up,” since “they each promote simply tremendous with out one another.”
Even when a pot vendor for some perverse motive was inclined to combine his product with fentanyl, the temperatures at which marijuana is smoked would dissipate the fentanyl earlier than it may very well be absorbed within the lungs. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist, emergency doctor, and dependancy medication specialist at College Hospitals Cleveland Medical Middle, notes that “fentanyl breaks down/decomposes so shortly/simply at such low temp[eratures]” that including it to smoked marijuana just isn’t a sensible supply technique. “May a industrial vape be used for fentanyl?” he writes. “It’s doable but it surely must be very intentional.”
Again in 2021, Robert Lawlor, an intelligence officer working for the New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, expressed related skepticism. “Marijuana [mixed with] fentanyl has been form of an city legend for a pair years now,” Lawlor told Forbes author Chris Roberts. “From a enterprise standpoint, it would not make sense to place fentanyl on marijuana.”
When somebody buys authorized marijuana merchandise, New York’s Workplace of Hashish Administration (OCM) noted final October, “they’re lab examined and labeled precisely
in response to these lab exams.” However to its credit score, particularly given the difficulties that New York has encountered in attempting to displace the black market, the OCM did not declare that such info protects customers towards fentanyl in marijuana.
“Misinformation associated to the hazard of unintentional overdose because of hashish ‘contaminated’ with fentanyl stays widespread,” the OCM mentioned. “Anecdotal stories of fentanyl ‘contaminated’ hashish proceed to be discovered to be false, as of the date of this publication.” Though “there isn’t any assure that any unregulated hashish product is free from contaminants or dangerous components,” it added, “there have been zero verified incidents of fentanyl ‘contamination’ in hashish.” And since “fentanyl just isn’t discovered within the hashish provide,” the OCM suggested, “it’s not really helpful to make use of fentanyl take a look at strips to check hashish.”
One instance of the “misinformation” that the OCM talked about was a November 2021 announcement from the Connecticut Division of Public Well being (DPH), which mentioned it had acquired 39 stories for the reason that earlier July of “sufferers who’ve exhibited opioid overdose signs and required naloxone for revival” however who “denied any opioid use and claimed to have solely smoked marijuana.” Because the OCM notes, “many individuals who use opioids are stigmatized in well being care settings,” which “contributes to distrust that may end up in inaccurate self-reporting or failure to reveal opioid use because of worry of inequitable care or punitive interventions by legislation enforcement.”
In accordance with the Connecticut DPH, only one pattern of marijuana had examined constructive for fentanyl. That discovering attracted loads of consideration on the time. However CT Insider later reported that an investigation revealed it “was in all probability brought on by unintentional contamination.”
Police periodically claim to have found proof of fentanyl-laced marijuana. However as Stovall famous, these stories at all times show to be unfounded.
In a rustic the place more than 60 million people use marijuana yearly, you’ll anticipate to see many fentanyl overdoses amongst pot people who smoke if this have been an actual downside. The dearth of confirmed instances gives additional motive to consider it’s not.
The OCM’s take is notable as a result of New York’s marijuana regulators, who need customers to patronize state-licensed retailers as an alternative of unauthorized sellers, have a powerful incentive to emphasise the potential risks of black-market marijuana. You likewise may anticipate the Partnership to Finish Dependancy (PEA), previously often known as the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, to hype the hazards of pot smoking. The group however joins the OCM in describing fentanyl-laced marijuana as a fable.
“You may need heard some worrying tales or rumors saying that marijuana could also be laced with fentanyl,” the PEA says. These rumors “are false,” it declares. “There is no such thing as a strong proof that marijuana is being laced with fentanyl.”
Fentanyl “is destroyed when it’s burned together with when it’s in a joint, blunt or different technique of smoking marijuana,” the PEA explains. “Which means even whether it is combined with marijuana flower it’s going to haven’t any impact on an individual who’s smoking it.”
What about vape pens? “Mostly obtainable vape pens do not attain temperatures over 450 levels Fahrenheit,” the PEA says. “It’s because greater temperatures will destroy the substances they’re meant for use with together with marijuana. Vape pens must attain temperatures nearer to 900 levels Fahrenheit to vaporize fentanyl. Even when the marijuana is contaminated or combined with fentanyl, the fentanyl could be destroyed earlier than it is absorbed.” As for fentanyl in marijuana edibles, “the chance may be very low as a result of fentanyl is damaged down by the liver, with little likelihood of reaching the mind.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has warned the general public about fentanyl in heroin, “fake prescription pills,” cocaine, and methamphetamine. However because the PEA notes, the DEA has by no means issued an alert about fentanyl-tainted marijuana. Final yr, after I requested the DEA if it had any proof of hashish or nicotine vape merchandise contaminated by fentanyl, the very best it may muster was a September 2020 report of an overdose involving intentional vaping of fentanyl.
The Utah Division of Public Security however claims “marijuana laced with fentanyl is a really actual menace to younger adults.” The Claudia Black Younger Grownup Middle, a drug therapy supplier in Arizona, likewise insists that “fentanyl-laced marijuana is on the rise,” citing the 2021 report from Connecticut.
Given the persistence of such unvalidated claims, it’s not shocking that politicians like Rubio and Trump proceed to echo them. Not less than Trump drew the logical conclusion from this imaginary menace, since it’s prohibition that creates the hazards related to medicine of unknown composition.
