By Paul Armentano, NORML Associate Director
Hardly a week goes by without it police or other officials warning about so-called “fentanyl-laced” weed. Upon closer inspection, however, there is little or nothing behind these sensational claims.
A good example of this: Police generated in Brattleboro, Vermont headlines last year when they, along with agents from the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, arrested several people accused of distributing cannabis contaminated with fentanyl.
Days later, however, laboratory tests Approved that none of the marijuana samples seized in the raid contained fentanyl.
A similar high-profile scenario also played out in Connecticut, where officials claimed that fentanyl-laced marijuana was responsible for more than three dozen overdose incidents. Forensic analysis later definitely that only in one of these cases fentanyl was actually taken. That case, health officials said, was likely the result of accidental contamination.
Such sensational statements, followed by far less publicized rebuttals, are nothing new.
In 2019 Kellyanne Conway, the Trump administration’s opioid crisis czar, publicly claimed that cannabis users routinely bought fentanyl-laced products in the illicit market. This claim was later denied by a senior DEA chemist accepted which the agency had no record of ever grabbed any Marijuana that tested positive for fentanyl.
To be clear, marijuana sold in the unregulated market can vary in quality and purity. In some cases, unscrupulous sellers may even contaminate cannabis with other controlled substances (although rarely, if ever, does fentanyl). In other cases, they may sell samples that inadvertently contain mold or other components that can pose a serious health hazard. However, in other cases, they may sell products laced with chemicals that attempt to mimic the effects of cannabis,…
