Fentanyl Myth Peddled by Police Chief is “Patently False”

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Exaggerations from a Cop? –

March 25, 2019 – Foster and Boyer compare the panic stirred around fentanyl to the irrational fear held by medical providers who refused to treat people with, or suspected of being positive for, HIV in the 1980s. Additionally, as Filter has reported, the fear-mongering encouraged by unfounded beliefs about fentanyl continues a xenophobic and racist legacy that once held opium to be an uncanny force violating white bodies.

After the publication of this article, Filter learned of a letter sent by the Commissioner of Public Safety Thomas D. Anderson to VT Digger, the regional news site that ran a “fact check” on Birmingham’s statements. In it, Anderson accuses VT Digger of “ignor[ing] or perform[ing] some mental gymnastics to dismiss” the findings of state organizations like the Center for Disease Control, Office of National Drug Control Policy, and Customs and Border Protection that warn first responders of potential risks. Anderson quotes the CDC, writing, that dermal and other mucous membrane contact could induce “a variety of symptoms that can include the rapid onset of life-threatening respiratory depression.”