Variations of fentanyl

Myths regarding Fentanyl have been circulating the internet ever since Fentanyl deaths started to dramatically increase. One of the more popular myths being spread is the idea of casual exposure by touching something that has Fentanyl on it.

“You are not going to get significant exposure through your skin or inhaling it just because it’s in the environment. You actually have to use the drug to get significant exposure,” Dr. Josh Radke said.

Rainbow fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have been introduced into the drug market. Specifically, rainbow fentanyl has been speculated to be targeted at younger audiences not necessarily children but young adults, this claim has been proved for the majority, false.

“I would say it is a myth that drug dealers are marketing toward teenagers who probably don’t have a lot of disposable income for drugs, there have been different colored pills for a long time, pharmaceutical and illicit, this is not something new that will be used to attract teenagers,” Dr. Josh Radke said.

There is also a new drug under the category of a synthetic opioid called protonitazene. This drug does not have any pharmaceutical use which makes it increasingly dangerous and more likely to be a fatal substance. Statistics on these variations of fentanyl are uncommon due to technological barriers.

“Unless someone knows and tells us specifically that they have been using a variation of fentanyl, we are unable to know if they are using it because we can not test for it,” Kayla Borja Frost said.