Five letters were mailed in total - four to Washington state, one to Fulton County in Georgia - Mr Raffensperger said.

The letters to Washington have been intercepted and some tested positive for fentanyl, he said.

  • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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    8 months ago

    Fentanyl!?!?!? Oh shit. Don’t you know that if a single molecule of Fentanyl is in a state then every cop in the tri-state area will suddenly enter a blind rage and start beating their wives.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Well, they’re either dealing with a troll or an idiot, and given that it’s election officials, I’ll say idiot. I’m a paramedic, I’ve worked with fentanyl a lot, getting fentanyl on your skin won’t kill you or send you into… Whatever happens to American cops when they “touch” fentanyl. I’m not saying it’s safe, the shit is insanely potent and prone to clumping, which is why it kills people way more than heroin or other opiates; 10 micrograms is the equivalent of one milligram of morphine. For the purpose of exposure, you either need to get it in contact with mucous membranes (medium speed) or have it in prolonged contact with the skin (pharmaceutically, this is done in some kind of gel preparation and absorption is S L O W). In other words, the person who sent this either believed the fentanyl was going to jump out of the letter and get the person who opened it, or they knew it wouldn’t kill them and just meant to shock or startle. I’m betting on the former.

    • fubo@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Whatever happens to American cops when they “touch” fentanyl.

      The reported symptoms when US police are “exposed” to fentanyl sound one hell of a lot like a plain old ordinary panic attack.

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        8 months ago

        Yeah, one or two that I saw (online, not in person) looked a lot like anxiety attacks to me too, but it’s hard to feel strongly about that kind of judgment from this side of a video player.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Well, there’s no medical reason for them to convulse and pass out…

          So we’re pretty much left with “gets scared and faints” as why it’s happening

          • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            Worth mentioning the signs of opiate overdose are the exact opposite of what those cops are doing. And most of them carry naloxone too so it’s not even a big deal if they manage to somehow ingest it

          • Case@lemmynsfw.com
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            8 months ago

            In neurology, psuedo-seizures are a thing.

            This entails the person falsely believing they had a seizure. In fact, their movement, mental state, etc, can mimic an actual ictal event.

            Often stress and anxiety are at least part of the issue, if not the leading cause.

            However, they can be differentiated by EEG.

            Source: I support medical staff in hospitals and deal with all sorts of information, my wife is an EEG technician, and oh yeah, I’m epileptic myself. I’ve seen most of the viewpoints surrounding seizures.

      • Ibex0@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        If I was a cop with fentanyl on my skin, I might use a narcan just to be safe. Probably get a day off too.

      • Zippy@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It like the train derailment. No one exposed to any levels high enough to be dangerous but all kinds of symptoms happening.

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      And whoever did this is absolutely fucked. They 100% are going after this stupid fuck with every law enforcement apparatus avaliable. I give him 2 weeks.

    • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
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      I’m a paramedic, I’ve worked with fentanyl a lot, getting fentanyl on your skin won’t kill you or send you into… Whatever happens to American cops when they “touch” fentanyl.

      I’m very skeptical every time I read one of those accounts, but have never been knowledgeable enough to be secure in my skepticism. Thanks for confirming this.

      • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        That’s plausible, IIRC the Russians used aerosolized fentanyl (or something closely related) when they killed the terrorists and pretty much everyone else* at the Bolshoi Theatre. I think you’d need a fairly substantial (I mean, relative to fentanyl) amount to go airborne in order to have a dangerous effect, though, and most people don’t explode envelopes open. Like, you’d probably have to get visible dust in the air at a minimum is what I’d guess, and I don’t think that was a realistic possibility here.

        *I’m being hyperbolic, but let’s leave it at refusing to tell doctors what they’d used or what the antidote (Narcan) would be was wildly reckless and got a lot of folks pointlessly killed.

        • PeleSpirit@lemmy.worldOP
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          8 months ago

          I don’t think the envelopes are exploding but when you open envelopes, sometimes things go airborne when you pull stuff out. It can happen with bags too, like flour just loves to go everywhere naturally. I wasn’t sure if airborne particles would harm someone if the air from moving the envelope made it go airborne.

          • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            It’s a valid question, but I don’t think that enough would go airborne to be dangerous under normal circumstances.

            • PeleSpirit@lemmy.worldOP
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              8 months ago

              Thanks for taking the question seriously, I don’t know anything about these kind of drugs and what they’re capable of.

  • masquenox@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    If fentanyl actually had the anti-cop effects cops like to pretend it does we’d be protecting our communities from them by dumping bags of the stuff on every street corner.

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t… which is why we don’t.

  • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    From the people that want you to know that they are the ones following the rules and it’s the other guys that aren’t, comes……

  • Rapidcreek@reddthat.com
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    8 months ago

    Of course fentanyl cannot be absorbed through the skin. Remember when the Merry Pranksters were planning to combine LSD with another drug that could be absorbed and paint the drinking fountains of the Republican National Convention? They didn’t, but those were the days,

    • fubo@lemmy.world
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      DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) does transport drugs through the skin; this was discovered in 1963, so it was in the news.

      However, LSD is not a terribly stable molecule and does not go along with this plan.

      Also, I’m pretty sure it was the Yippies (Abbie Hoffman’s bunch), not the Pranksters (Ken Kesey’s bunch).

      • Rapidcreek@reddthat.com
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        8 months ago

        Pretty sure I read about it in the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. But you are completely right. I believe it was a Stanley Owsley idea, and he never let a molecule get in his way. Anyway, I always thought it would be a fun idea with Viagra `

    • admiralteal@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      There are formulations that can be absorbed through the skin – transdermal patches for fentanyl exist – but it is certainly not going to happen accidentally or with regular formulations.

    • Duranie@literature.cafe
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      I’m assuming you’re talking about handling a dry powder form, to which I have zero experience so I can’t comment on. BUT fentanyl is absolutely administered through the skin with patches, used for slow release pain control. They’re incredibly helpful for people who aren’t getting medicated regularly or have difficulty with oral medications.

    • Endorkend@kbin.social
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      Doesn’t need to be absorbed by the skin.

      Opening it and having trace on your hands can land some of it in your mouth, eyes, nose, etc.

      Don’t know if it would be enough to do harm, but pure fentanyl can kill at 2 milligrams. Which you could get in you through simple trace.

  • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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    8 months ago

    I’ve seen this episode. I think it originally aired in 2002 but it may have been earlier yet.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    For everyone talking about how this isn’t dangerous- you’re missing the point. The point is to scare election workers out of working in elections. You know fentanyl isn’t dangerous on skin contact. Whoever is doing this is hoping they don’t.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Fentanyl-laced envelopes have been sent to poll workers, sparking investigations in at least two US states, Georgia’s top election official says.

    Brad Raffensperger said suspicious letters had been posted this week to vote counters in Georgia and the north-western US state of Washington.

    The final envelope was still in transit to Georgia, where Mr Raffensperger said officials would provide the overdose-reversal drug nalaxone as a precaution.

    His counterpart in Washington, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, confirmed separately in a statement that election offices in four counties - King, Pierce, Skagit and Spokane - had received envelopes containing “unknown powdery substances”.

    Local, state and federal authorities are investigating the incidents, which occurred while workers were counting ballots from the 7 November general election, said Mr Hobbs, a Democrat.

    Fulton County in Georgia has been the target of repeated unfounded claims by former President Donald Trump of widespread ballot fraud.


    The original article contains 332 words, the summary contains 148 words. Saved 55%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!