St. Louis County detective on mission to bust myths about fentanyl | Law and order

“Due to the misinformation that’s out there, people weren’t sure how to respond,” she said. “But when we started learning these things and started doing research, we found that most of the myths are just that: they’re myths and based in fear. But it’s understandable. It’s a very scary drug and it takes a very small amount in the system to overdose and that is scary and rampant right now.” 

About 88 percent of the overdose patients St. Louis County police encountered last year involved fentanyl, a medication typically prescribed to cancer patients or used to sedate someone for surgery, Quinn said.

“Touching a powder substance or a pill carries a very low chance of causing an overdose,” she said. “Even having it in the air really has a super low chance of causing overdose.”

She has spent most of this year educating officers in her department as well as the public on the topic.

Two St. Louis County police officers were taken to a hospital in January after a pill containing fentanyl opened while they were arresting a man who tried to leave the scene of an accident in Brentwood. The fire chief said one of the officers felt dizzy and lightheaded, so both were taken to a hospital as a precaution and the fire department sent in a hazardous materials team to remove anything that looked risky in the car.

Quinn said she did not know the particulars of that scene, but added: “We always want police officers to use safety precautions when they come into contact with any drug.”

The following are Quinn’s top myths that she presented to a class of police officers earlier this month at the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse in Olivette.

1. Touching fentanyl causes an overdose immediately.

Quinn: This hasn’t been shown to be true. You must ingest or inject it or get it into your mucus membranes to overdose and typically, it takes a while to take effect. Oftentimes, even if you were to ingest it, it doesn’t cause an immediate overdose. That said, we recommend that anyone coming into contact with any drugs should wear face masks and eye protection. I wouldn’t want to touch it with my bare hands over an extended period of time.

2. Breathing in fentanyl can cause an overdose.

Quinn: If you snorted it, obviously that could cause an effect, but it just being in the air will not cause an overdose. We tell people to wash with soap and water. If you believe your clothes are contaminated, take those off in a space that is safe and wash them with soap and water not with your other clothing. Wear protective gear and do not touch your mouth, nose or eyes. 

3. Hand sanitizer can help remove fentanyl contamination.

Quinn: Never use hand sanitizer. It doesn’t take anything off your hands and the alcohol in it causes absorption into the skin to happen more quickly.

4. Narcan cannot reverse fentanyl and other stronger synthetics.

Quinn: Narcan does reverse overdoses involving fentanyl and other strong synthetics, but it depends on the person, their biology, how much they took and how tolerant a person is to the drug. It varies on a case-by-case basis. There’s not a cookie-cutter way to treat somebody and there’s no cookie-cutter way to ensure Narcan is going to work.