It comes as no surprise that police in Warwick, Rhode Island, recently walked back claims that exposure to “fentanyl-laced cannabis” was responsible for a local woman’s tragic overdose death. While street fentanyl can no doubt be deadly, the substance is rarely, if ever, present in cannabis.
Nonetheless, sensational headlines and dubious police reports claiming otherwise remain plentiful. For instance, police in Brattleboro, Vermont, previously generated headlines when they arrested multiple persons on charges of distributing fentanyl-tainted cannabis. Days later, however, lab tests confirmed that no fentanyl was present in any of the marijuana samples seized by law enforcement.
A similar, highly publicized scenario also unfolded in Connecticut, where officials alleged that marijuana laced with fentanyl was responsible for over three dozen overdose incidents. Forensic analyses later determined that only one of these cases actually involved the ingestion of fentanyl. That case, health officials said, was probably the result of accidental contamination.
Such sensational pronouncements, followed by far less publicized refutations, are nothing new. According to the findings of a 2023 report issued by New York State’s Office of Cannabis Management, “Misinformation related to the danger of accidental overdose due to cannabis ‘contaminated’ with fentanyl remains widespread… Anecdotal reports of fentanyl ‘contaminated’ cannabis continue to be found to be false, as of the date of this publication.”
In fact, a recent Harvard Medical School study revealed that forensic labs almost never identify fentanyl in illicit cannabis seizures. “Our results show no evidence of widespread fentanyl co-occurrence with cannabis,” the study’s authors concluded.
That’s not to say that some unregulated cannabis products aren’t without their own quality control issues. For instance, a recent scientific analysis of unregulated cannabis flowers seized by police determined that 16 percent of samples “had detectable levels of mycotoxins and fungal metabolites.” Some hemp-derived cannabinoid …
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Author: Paul Armentano / High Times
