WEBVTT - Rainbow Fentanyl: Spooky Week #4 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:15.920 Wellcome to the final Spooky Week episode. Hi, Look, this 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:17.479 is this is it could happen here, and this is 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:21.320 our last Spooky Week episode for this year, and we're 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:24.760 gonna be talking about something extremely spooky and Halloween themed. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:30.440 Rainbow fentonel the newest deadly threat hiding in your kids 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:34.000 trigger treat basket, or so you would think if you 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:37.479 are a frequent viewer of Fox News or really any 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:42.080 local cable news channel, and that rainbow fentanyl in particular 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.640 is troublesome because of its appearance. This is treacherous decepsion 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:53.440 to market rainbow fentonel like candy. This is every parents 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.760 worst nightmare, especially in the month of October as Halloween 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:02.960 fast approaches. That was Fox five News, New York and 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:07.160 d E a special agent Frank Tarantino, giving a press 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:12.240 conference on the rainbow fentinel scourge sweeping the nation. It's 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:14.680 not hard to see how this narrative became the new 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:19.400 protect the children pearl clutching panic. It's a natural extension 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:24.119 of the police officer touches fentinel and spontaneously overdoses lie 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:26.840 that local news across the country have been pushing for 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:30.520 over a year now. More on this later coupled with 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:36.480 the old classic poisoned, drug laced, tampered Halloween candy myth 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:41.080 that's captivated American parents for decades, whether it be razor 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:45.440 blades and napples, needles and tutsie rules, meth in, gummy bears, 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.920 cocaine candy corn, or th HC sour Patch kids. If 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:53.400 you've ever watched any local news during the month of October, 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.800 clips like these should sound really familiar. Police in at 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:01.280 least two Wisconsin towns are investing in reports of possible 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.840 Halloween candy tampering breaking right now at ten concerns about 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:09.960 possible tainted candy in Economy Walk tonight. Police tell us 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.600 they've received reports of a suspicious person handing out Tutsi 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.959 roles on Oakwood Avenue. Right now, police have no evidence 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.280 that any candy has definitely been tampered with, the world's 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:25.120 leading researcher on Halloween candy tampering, Joel Best, professor of 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:28.280 sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, has 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:33.800 found little evidence to substantiate Halloween candy fears. Joel Best 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.919 has published multiple studies analyzing the legitimacy of Halloween candy tampering, 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:41.359 including his research paper The Razor Blade in the Apple, 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:45.320 The Social Construction of Urban Legends, and his sociology book 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.880 Threatened Children, Rhetoric and Concern around Child Victims. I have 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:55.440 followed press coverage of Halloween back to night so more 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:59.480 than sixty years, and I cannot find any evidence that 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:03.960 any child has ever been killed or seriously injured by 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:07.120 a contaminated treat picked up in the course of triggered treaty. 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.359 So let's go back to kind of where all this started. 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.560 The first report of Halloween treats being tampered with in 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:18.440 North America was in nineteen fifty nine. That Halloween, a 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.960 California dentist named William Sheen distributed four hundred and fifty 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:27.080 laxative laced candies to children, thirty of whom fell ill. 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:32.040 He was later charged with outrage of public decency and 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:36.280 unlawful dispensing of drugs. This is kind of like the 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.320 only incident that says that this has ever actually happened 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:41.800 with was back in the late fifties. This is the 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.400 only true one of someone like handing out actually laced 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.920 candy to tons of kids. Now, to determine whether the 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:54.680 current tempered Halloween candy myths hold any weight. Joel Best 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.640 examined twenty five years of Halloween coverage from the New 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:01.760 York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune. In his research, 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:05.760 he found that there's only been one confirmed death from 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:09.880 a poisoned Halloween candy, and it wasn't from a nefarious 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:13.400 stranger who wanted to harm tricker treaters. The fatal incident 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:16.679 occurred in nineteen seventy four, after a Texas man named 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:21.080 Ronald Clark O'Brien poisoned his eight year old son with 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:25.200 a cyanide laced pixie stick, shortly after he took insurance 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.839 claims out on his children. O'Brien had reportedly given poisoned 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.120 pixie sticks to his daughter and three other neighborhood children, 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.840 but the candy had not been consumed since then. Joel 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.279 Best said that in some instances, kids tamper with their 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.080 own candy to get attention, or a friend or a 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.600 family member played a prank that went awry, or even 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.440 a foreign object ended up inside candy during the manufacturing process. 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:51.960 And that's the majority of these types of claims that 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.560 you'll see on the local news. Now Halloween can be 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:59.720 a particularly dangerous holiday, but not due to tampered candy. 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.320 The real notable danger comes from pedestrian deaths. I study 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:06.680 published last year in Jama Pediatrics analyzed data over a 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.640 forty two year period in the United States and found 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.680 a forty three percent higher risk of pedestrian deaths on 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.239 Halloween night when compared to the week before and after. 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.480 John Staples, lead author and clinical Assistant Professor of medicine 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.600 and as scientist at University of British Columbia, said that quote, 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:28.839 we found that particularly among kids age four to eight, 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:33.440 the risk was tenfold higher on Halloween. So yeah, Halloween 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.800 actually is pretty dangerous, but it's from a car, not 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:41.320 from someone sneaking drugs into your kids candy. Last year, 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:46.200 before the current Rainbow Centinel scare, the drug laced trick 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.960 in your kids treat was weed laced candy and snacks, 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:55.520 causing quote unquote THHC overdose among children. But shady marijuana 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:59.239 pushers package them just for kids, and if stony patch 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.720 kids are made extend, it's hard to tell. And unfortunately 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.760 the black market is making it easy for children to 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.240 get these products. Ben Salem Police confiscated what looks like 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.560 normal candy during a traffic stop earlier this month. But 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:18.000 these Sweethearts, they're medicated. These sour patch candies have a twist, 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.400 and these Cheetos are anything but all of these items 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:25.159 are laced with th HC. By laced with th HC, 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:30.000 they mean the forty dollar Stoner Patch dummies are a 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:34.400 manufactured weed candy sold in legal weed shops across the country. 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.480 The fact that these novel t THC products are incredibly 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:41.280 expensive and in packaging covered in we leaves doesn't seem 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:44.440 to matter. Um, But yes, I'm sure the black market 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:48.359 is super eager to give away tiny fifty dollar bags 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:53.000 of weeded rito's. Two children dressed as the Avengers all right, 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:56.240 now the details on a big warning for parents. Tonight 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:00.640 police officers and Ben Salem confiscated these items during the stop. 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.920 It's candy laced with marijuana, and now police don't want 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.320 these friendly looking snacks to get into the wrong hands. 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:10.440 With Halloween coming up. I'm going to quote from Filter 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:15.080 mag quote. Attorneys general across the country are participating in 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.160 the annual tradition of urging parents to stand vigilant against 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:23.600 free drugs disguised as candy. On October four, State a 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:26.680 g s issued such claims, all using the same data 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:29.440 and language which appears to have been generously pre written 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:34.160 for them by the Department of Homeland Security Ohio, Illinois, Connecticut, 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.560 and in New York and Arkansas. Earlier that month decried 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:43.160 the dangers of youth THHC overdose, but without hinting at 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.880 what those dangers might be, except for New York Attorney 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:52.640 General Letitia James, who alone of the ages swung big, 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.920 saying New York parents should be on the alert for 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:00.520 deceptive cannabis products that look like standard snacks and candy 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:05.640 but contain dangerously high concentrations of th HC. These products 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:09.800 are especially dangerous for our children. We've seen an increase 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:14.040 in accidental overdoses among children and nationwide, and it's vital 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.679 that we do everything we can to protect our children 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.320 and curb this crisis and prevent any future harm or 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:25.800 even worse death. Now that's a stunning claim, even by 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.560 weed disinformation standards. To date, there's been no confirmed evidence 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:34.720 that THHC overdose has ever killed anybody, adult or child. 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:50.400 So with all of that drug laced Halloween history, onto 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:55.480 the latest rainbow colored menace in your child's tricker retreat basket. 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.920 As Halloween approaches, federal authorities are warning parents about the 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:05.160 deadly consequences of fentnel pills, particularly about the rainbow variety 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:09.040 that look like candy. The Drug Enforcement Agency first put 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:13.960 out a statement on multicolored quote unquote rainbow fentanyl near 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:18.240 the end of August two, claiming during that month that 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.960 the d e A and law enforcement partners seized brightly 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:27.120 colored fentanel and fentanel pills in twenty states. And this 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:31.040 is how the presence of colored fentanyl was framed in 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.480 the d e AS initial statement. Quote this trend appears 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.640 to be a new method used by Mexican drug cartels 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:41.560 to sell highly addictive and potentially deadly fentanyl made to 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:47.760 look like candy to children unquote. Now, obviously, children aren't 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:51.720 the biggest consumer base for these drugs, since they have 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.400 no money, have very low tolerance, and are unlikely to 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.439 be a repeat customer, but that hasn't stopped the d 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.280 e A from continuously referring to these colored pills as 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:07.280 quote unquote marketing to attract kids, as if there's rainbow 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:12.000 fentanyl ads on Nickelodeon or something. It seems the only 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.680 one marketing rainbow fentanyl is the d e A itself 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:20.080 and now news channels across the country. This is from 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.880 Good Morning America. Warning certainly one here that parents need 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.080 to hear with Halloween coming up. It's about potentially deadly 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:31.440 fentyl pills that look like candy. Obviously, the d e 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.840 A is an enforcement agency, not a harm reduction agency, 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.320 and the way they've been talking about fentanyl the past 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:43.000 few months has focused more on old War on Drugs 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:48.240 style propaganda, with anti immigrant drug warriors pushing the fentanyl 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.800 for kids narrative. The d e a s messaging seems 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.400 largely targeted to parents and more intended to cause panic 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.280 than actually work to prevent overdoses, and it distracts from 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:03.239 experts that's a drug. Criminalization is what actually increases overdoses, 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:08.840 not these quote unquote candy colored pills. Mariah Francis, a 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:13.480 resource associate with the National Harm Reduction Coalition, says such 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.160 rhetoric is quote an active byproduct of drug policies that 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:23.160 prioritize criminalization and political agendas over active harm reduction unquote, 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.400 as colored fentel can actually serve as an indicator that 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:30.440 these pills are not prescription drugs. The other War on 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.600 drugs style scare tactic being used a lot recently has 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:40.319 been promoting heavily publicized drug seizures and making highly exaggerated 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.760 claims about what the busts mean to the illicit drug 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:48.720 supply and public health. Michigan and Ohio, we seized approximately 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:53.040 four million deadly doses. Special Agent in charge Orville Green 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:57.559 says nationwide that number jumps to thirty six million deadly 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:00.880 doses seized and just four months in there in pill 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.040 and powder form, the source materials coming from China, produced 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:10.040 by drug cartels in Mexico, calling them quote unquote deadly doses, 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:14.360 Like yeah, dude, if you quantify your seizure by an 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:18.360 amount that could be potentially deadly, I suppose you could 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:22.280 only measure in deadly quantities. I could do the same 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.240 thing with with caffeine. I can go to the store 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.320 and pick up like ten bang energy drinks and be 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.760 I just got a deadly dose of caffee. Like yeah, 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.080 that's if you're measuring it in that way, sure you 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:36.800 can measure it as deadly doses. Plus in that clip 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.520 from Fox to Detroit. You can see the anti China, 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.840 anti Mexico angle that they're running with now. Obviously, places 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:47.880 like Fox News has been eating this stuff up. Just 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.040 during the first half of September, the network mentioned rainbow 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.400 fentannel at least sixty six times on the air over 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.600 the previous month, weaponizing the narrative to blame migrants at 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.679 the border and China for the supposed is a threat 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:05.280 that the drug poses to poor, innocent children. And many 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.920 of people's most trusted news sources, which are local news outlets, 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.920 have contributed to the d e a's panic by parting 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:16.720 the agency's statements as pure fact, pushing the claim that 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.440 rainbow fentanyl is meant to attract kids just at face value, 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:24.640 presented without any skepticism, without any fact checking or information 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.720 from independent drug policy experts. Here is a headline from 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:33.480 ABC twenty four in Tennessee quote, rainbow fentanyl the colorful 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:37.719 marketing tactic already in Memphis streets. And this is from 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:41.439 a TV channel and Raleigh, North Carolina d A warrens 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.480 of so called rainbow fentanyl putting children at risk and 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:48.040 headlines like that have been a diame a dozen the 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:51.120 past month. Never once bringing up that there's not a 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:54.040 single piece of evidence that these pills are being peddled 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.280 on the playground. This is exactly the kind of behavior 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.400 from news organizations that leads to misinformation and panics, which 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:05.440 distract from actual public health dangers and relatively simple things 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:09.319 we can do to combat them. Fox News, many local 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.640 news stations, and the d e A itself has now 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:17.880 joined in the long standing annual tradition of Halloween candy 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:23.040 based fearmongering by baselessly claiming that parents should be concerned 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:29.000 about fentanyl appearing in their child's Halloween candy. Federal agents 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.680 with an urgent warning to parents about potentially deadly fentanyl 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.880 pills that look just like candy. Dubbed rainbow fentanyl, authorities 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.000 are calling it a newly packaged poison as Halloween is 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.560 around the corner. The idea that people are going to 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:49.280 give away free drugs for Halloween, which it just what 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.760 get wild concept? Um, I wish I would I would 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.000 go trick or treating more if there was free drugs. 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.640 But this idea has been boosted by elected leaders and 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:03.600 non d e A government officials. Florida's Attorney General, Ashley 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:08.240 Moody did a whole press conference saying quote Halloween can 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:13.000 be very scary, but nowhere near as scary as rainbow 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:16.640 colored fentanel that looks like candy and can be lethal 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:20.640 in minute doses. Whether these drugs are being transported in 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.640 candy boxes or mixed in with other common drugs and 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.560 sold unsuspecting users, the threat posed to the safety of 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:31.080 kids and young adults is very real. Just one pill 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:34.560 laced with fentinel can kill, so parents, please talk to 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.400 your children about the dangers posed by this extremely lethal drug. 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:43.200 Halloween could be scary, but that isn't anyway. Senator Rob 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.760 Portman wrote quote we must have all the boots on 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:51.720 the ground to interdict deadly rainbow fentanel as Halloween approaches, 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:56.680 which he posted alongside a Fox News story about fentinel 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.760 disguised in candy packaging, which is some pa a common 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.760 tactic to smuggle drugs through borders, which is why such 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:09.080 packaging is found so often in drug seizures. Now, nobody 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:13.000 is planning to give away free skittle fentanel to little 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:17.160 Timmy when he comes knocking on doors and more quote unquote, 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.520 and boots on the ground is exactly what law enforcement 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.240 wanted when they started this lie. The d e A 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:26.960 budget has gone up every year, and so have Sentinel overdoses. 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.880 But it's the won't somebody think of the children angle 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.880 that's so irresistible to news media. It provides a huge 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:39.320 rush to our cultures actual favorite drug, fear for our children. 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.920 It's the same undercurrent that fuels attacks on drag queens 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:46.800 and trans people. Fear for the kids. While a long 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:50.400 piece and CNN explicitly said parents of young children should 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:54.560 not overly panic, h w R A l piece cautioned 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:57.200 that quote, we all know how easy it is for 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.720 children to pass candy around to each other, as if 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:03.800 like Rainbow, Fentinel is going to be shared around like 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:07.479 Eminem's at a lunch breaker or something like And one 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.359 of the more silly things that I found. People running 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:15.320 the account for ABC seven Eyewitness News hid over one 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:19.359 hundred replies pointing out the disinformation in their so called 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:24.920 eyewitness news story. In their tweet that read quote hashtag 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:31.440 breaking twelve thousand Fentinel pills seized in wrappers of Skittles, Whoppers, 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:36.879 sweet Tarts at l a X, sparking renewed Halloween warnings 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:41.840 to parents. So yeah, they they hid over one hundred 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:45.240 applies to that tweet basically saying this is this is bullshit. 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:47.320 You have no idea what you're talking about. This this 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:51.280 story again, it conflates methods of drug trafficking with the 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:55.400 longstanding myth of expensive drugs being hidden in cheap Halloween candy. 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:58.359 And then, by far the most ridiculous thing that I found, 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:01.720 it's just because it's kind of absurd and slightly funny, 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:06.000 Laura Trump on Fox News did the most ridiculous Rainbow 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.640 Fentinel segment that I could find, including spreading the blatant 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:15.280 lie that police officers have indeed died by simply touching fentinel. Yeah, 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:17.080 you look at the police officers who when they just 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:19.199 pat people down and they find it, if it touches 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:22.320 their fingers, they literally go into shock and almost die 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:24.280 from it. Something I think have died from it. The 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:28.040 idea that you could have a kid anywhere in America 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.680 if if one child dies from this on Halloween. I 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.800 gotta tell you, we have to take action to stop 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.159 this right now because parents are terrified and we have 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:39.400 no answers. What are we supposed to do they're gonna 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:42.359 go trick or truth. So Democrats ruin Halloween to plan, 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:45.920 they really do. So what you wouldn't know by watching 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.240 these types of news programs, whether they be Fox News 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.399 or just regular cable news, is that the colors in 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:56.520 these drugs have been added to pills for years. The 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:01.920 real danger isn't that kids are being given fentanyl like candy. 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.439 It's that fentanyl is being pressed into the shapes of 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:08.560 other prescription drugs like oxy codone, and people will take 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.679 a fentanyl pill thinking it's something else and then overdose. 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:17.480 And throughout many of these news stories, they don't mention narcan, 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:20.200 or if they do, they mentioned in the context as 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.240 saying like this school in l A Now carries narcan. 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.280 That's how bad things are getting. Like they used the 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:30.160 presence of an arcan as like a bad omen which 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.960 means no, people should just have narcan everywhere cause it's great. 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:37.040 Well more on that later, but these colored pills provide 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:40.720 such a compelling visual for anyone with a financial stake 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:45.080 in continuing prohibition. In a way, the d A is right. 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:49.119 Rainbow fentanyl is a marketing stunt, but one concocted by 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.720 the d e A. Itself as a justification for its 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:56.520 own existence, rather than drug sellers marketing their product to kids, 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:01.560 using the escalating demonization of fentanyl to call for increased 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:04.760 funding to law enforcement and border patrol, and the need 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:08.400 to convince a public acclimating to the idea of fentanyl 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:12.919 that actually, fentanyl is even scarier than what they once thought. 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.800 Quoting filter Meg again quote, people sell drugs because they 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:21.440 are economically motivated to do so. No one except the 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:23.760 d e A and its allies is arguing that it's 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:26.480 a good business strategy to kill off your adult buyers 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:30.840 and give free samples to children previously untapped customer base 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:34.879 because the fentanyl wasn't never pretty enough, and not because 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.080 children do not have money. The emergence of different colors 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.399 that pressed pills alongside the traditional blue fentanel pills won't 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:44.560 lure in younger buyers. If anything, it will help keep 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:49.680 newer buyers safe. Unquote, brightly colored fake pills that are 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.680 clearly fake are helpful for people being cut off of 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.760 their prescription and turning to street drugs to remind them 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.000 that what they're getting is not the ox of codon 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:01.439 that they're used to, but something more potent and for 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.200 more on what fentinel actually is and to kind of 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:10.639 get an expert opinion on these topics, I interviewed Ryan Marino, uh, 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:15.320 the resident Fentinel expert who's sited and basically all of 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.720 these news stories. So after the ad break you will 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:34.440 hear that interview. First, can you introduce yourself? So I'm 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:39.200 Ryan Marino. I'm a medical toxicologist, emergency doc and addiction 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:45.280 medicine specialist. So what exactly is fentinel? What's the deal? 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.800 What's what? What is what is the actual thing? Because 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:50.720 people I know have heard a lot about it, but 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:53.840 they may may be unaware, like what this type of 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:59.080 opioid is, how it's different from other things, why it's around. Yeah, 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:01.160 and I think most people will hear kind of one 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:05.280 side of fentanyl. And so fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:08.879 So it's a lot like harrow and morphine oxycoda and 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:11.520 all those other things. It acts the same way. The 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:15.040 difference is that it is more potent, and because it 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:18.280 is fully synthetic, it can be made without the necessity 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:22.080 for like large poppy fields whether all that stuff. Um, 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:25.080 but it's it's very easy to produce it's used medically 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:27.480 all the time. UM, it's like one of the most 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:32.520 ubiquitously used medicines and very invaluable lot for its medical uses, 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:36.560 but in the street because of its potency, small amounts 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:38.760 to make a huge difference in the dose that people get, 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:41.960 and so fentanyl in street drugs has been the main 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:46.000 driver behind what people call our opioid overdose epidemic UM 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:48.600 and the kind of record breaking overdose deaths that we've 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:52.159 had in recent years. I would like guess that one 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:54.920 of the biggest reasons that people have heard about fentanyl 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:59.520 is due to police officers and all of the stories 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:03.760 from the past last year of police officers spontaneously overdosing 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:08.000 by either touching it, getting too close to it, breathing 0:23:08.040 --> 0:23:12.520 the same air that it's around. Can you overdose by 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:18.520 touching fentanyl? You cannot, UM. So there is a hatch 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:21.399 that's made for the medical fentyl, so it can absorb 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:24.440 through your skin if you try really, really hard, but 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:28.919 it's incredibly ineffective. Even with the best pharmaceutical technology that 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:32.960 money could buy. UM, this is still very slow, very ineffective. 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:36.560 Touching fentyl cannot cause an overdose. And the way it 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:40.120 exists on the street, particularly, You're never going to encounter 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:43.480 the form or quantity that you would need to cause 0:23:43.520 --> 0:23:47.359 an overdose. So these stories are nothing more than urban 0:23:47.440 --> 0:23:52.600 legends and misinformation. How why are people having these effects then? Right? 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:55.840 Because there's videos of people like fainting and falling over 0:23:55.960 --> 0:23:58.959 and they're like this police officer needed to receive narcan 0:23:59.040 --> 0:24:01.600 and was rushed to the hospital. Little like, what's what? 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:05.560 What's actually happening there? Because people obviously look like they're 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:09.040 experiencing something, but it doesn't really match up with what 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:12.959 fentinel is able to do. So it's a really interesting phenomenon. 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:14.720 And if you look at any of these stories, any 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:17.280 of these videos, you can very clearly see people having 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:20.320 real symptoms. I'm not trying to cast any doubt on that, 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:24.359 but what's reported and what's shown is actually the opposite 0:24:24.359 --> 0:24:26.679 of what fentyl would do. And so people report feeling 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:31.320 very anxious, breathing very rapidly, having their heart race, all 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:33.760 of the things that fentyl would actually cause the opposite. 0:24:33.760 --> 0:24:37.280 And so I can only speculate on what's really happening there, 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:39.600 but my guess would be that this is some sort 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:42.280 of panic reaction related to the fact that people are 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:45.760 hearing about this every day, hearing the fentyl is killing 0:24:45.840 --> 0:24:48.600 hundreds of thousands of people, hearing that other people have 0:24:48.720 --> 0:24:51.400 just dropped down from being near it. UM. And there's 0:24:51.480 --> 0:24:55.240 also this related concept called the no cebo effect, which 0:24:55.240 --> 0:24:58.479 is kind of like the uh, dark side of the 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:01.400 placebo effect, if you will, UM. And so basically it's 0:25:01.440 --> 0:25:04.320 just that if you believe something so strongly, you can 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:07.520 have very negative of real symptoms from it, and the 0:25:07.520 --> 0:25:09.960 way you would treat this would be with a placebo, 0:25:10.040 --> 0:25:12.879 which in these situations Narkian is a placebo. So the 0:25:12.880 --> 0:25:15.600 fact that Narkian works for some of them UM kind 0:25:15.600 --> 0:25:17.800 of suggests that there is some sort of placebo no 0:25:17.920 --> 0:25:21.800 cebo effect going on. I know that the ventil has 0:25:21.800 --> 0:25:25.800 become more common since the pandemics rough you, I would 0:25:25.800 --> 0:25:28.359 say probably starting in California is what most of most 0:25:28.400 --> 0:25:30.880 of it looks like in terms of like the whole 0:25:30.880 --> 0:25:34.840 like opioid epidemic thing, like why is this become such 0:25:34.840 --> 0:25:38.520 a big problem in the past like three years specifically, 0:25:38.560 --> 0:25:42.520 like with fentanyl getting into so much of the supply, well, 0:25:42.520 --> 0:25:46.639 so fentyl started getting cut into heroin. UM particularly on 0:25:46.680 --> 0:25:49.000 the East coast, like pretty early on, probably like ten 0:25:49.080 --> 0:25:51.679 or more years ago now and took a while to 0:25:51.720 --> 0:25:54.280 make its way west. It seemed like California actually had 0:25:54.440 --> 0:25:57.800 different heroin and particularly like black tar, heroin was more 0:25:57.800 --> 0:26:00.520 prevalent there, which can't be as easily placed with a 0:26:00.640 --> 0:26:04.200 powder for anyone who's familiar with heroin. UM. But now, 0:26:04.240 --> 0:26:07.680