5 Fall River residents test positive for fentanyl after believing they used marijuana – News – The Herald News, Fall River, MA

FALL RIVER — Over the past three months, five city residents who reported they did not consume opioids were revived with Naloxone and tested positive for fentanyl after using what they believed was marijuana, according to a city official.

The substance those residents consumed was “laced” with fentanyl, or really was not marijuana at all, according to Niki Fontaine, coordinator of the Fall River Opioid Task Force’s Project ReConnect.

While lab testing has not been done on the marijuana or marijuana-like substances those residents reportedly consumed, Fontaine said as many as three out of five of them may have unknowingly purchased and consumed a substance that Fall River Emergency Services Director Beth Faunce said was the subject of an internal notification that a federal agency sent to first responders this week.

The substance is crystalline in nature and looks like marijuana, said Fontaine. It is green in color and though it is not plant matter, it crumbles similar to the way cannabis does, though it is slightly more difficult to break up.

“Under the microscope it looks like a plant, but it’s actually a crystalline and it’s green and clumpy but it’s hard to crush,” Fontaine said.

Lab testing on samples of the substance highlighted in the federal notification revealed it does not contain any THC, the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis, according to Fontaine. Instead, the substance tested positive for fentanyl and benzodiazepines, a class of tranquilizer medication.

“I would warn the public that it’s looking exactly like weed, but it’s actually fentanyl and benzos,” she said.

Consuming fentanyl with tranquilizers together creates an increased risk of overdose, according to Fontaine.

“That’s a deadly combination,” Fontaine said. “It has to be what we’re seeing in Fall River.”

Fontaine, in her role as coordinator of Project Reconnect, contacts people after they overdose to offer resources for recovery. While researching these five cases, she learned that four of the people who overdosed did not abuse opioids.

“They didn’t have any history of substance abuse,” she said. “People are going to the hospital and they’re testing positive for fentanyl.”

Two of the cases involved residents who overdosed after eating what they believed were marijuana edibles, said Fontaine, and like the other cases reported they did not consume heroin or another opioid.

All five residents reported buying what they believed was cannabis or cannabis edibles from street-level dealers.

Fontaine speculates the substance may be a way for traffickers to disguise fentanyl as marijuana, which is legal in Canada and legal in some form in 33 U.S. states.

Though it may be more expensive, Fontaine urged residents to buy marijuana at one of the state’s licenced dispensaries instead of a black-market dealer.

“If you are smoking weed you should go to a dispensary, because you know that it’s safe,” she said. “Even if the prices are more expensive, if you are using marijuana, it’s not safe right now.”