A sheriff’s department in New York claimed its officers found fentanyl-laced marijuana.
Last Friday, the Facebook account for the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office announced its first alleged case of weed mixed with the deadly opioid.
“With fentanyl laced marijuana now confirmed to be in New York State, I am extremely concerned for the safety of anyone using marijuana,” said Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol, according to the post. “Everyone needs to be aware that the potential of getting fentanyl-laced marijuana is possible and the side effects can be deadly.”
“We have seen the tragic results of what heroin and fentanyl mixed together can do, and I fear for what will be happening now that it’s being mixed into marijuana,” Maciol said in the announcement.
Sheriff Maciol has openly opposed marijuana legalization in the past. In February, he hosted an anti-weed press conference with other New-York-based law enforcement officials.
Maciol’s February press conference included representatives from the anti-legalization organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), which has claimed that “Big Marijuana” companies are trying to make weed more addictive and are actively marketing cannabis products to children.
Earlier this month, Maciol also defended a department policy of publicly releasing mugshots of booked weed suspects after New York state passed a law barring the practice.
Members of the Trump Administration have also alleged that black marketeers are lacing marijuana with fentanyl. Both Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s opioid crisis czar, and Dr. Nora Volkow of the National Institute of Drug Abuse cited Canadian police reports as their sources. The Canadian police later retracted their statements, admitting they never found weed laced with fentanyl.
Fentanyl is an opioid medication that can be up to 100 times more potent than morphine. Police departments around the world have discovered samples of cocaine, meth, and heroin laced with fentanyl, and mixing the opioid with other drugs can be lethal.
Earlier this month, Chinese officials announced a ban on fentanyl and its derivatives after being issued demands during the White House’s ongoing “trade war” with Beijing.
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