While devoting the latest episode of Last Week Tonight to the positive impacts of harm reduction strategies to prevent deaths from drug overdoses, host John Oliver called out police departments for continuing to push the lie that their officers are in danger just by being near the highly-addictive opioid, fentanyl. After showing a clip of an officer who claimed to have “nearly died” after finding the substance in a vehicle, and not even touching it, Oliver broke down how such claims are “completely absurd” and more importantly, “impossible.”
Via HuffPost:
“What those officers were much more likely experiencing were panic attacks,” Oliver said. “Which makes sense, because they’d just been exposed to something they’ve repeatedly heard is deadly to be anywhere near.”
It’s even become a trope in TV shows, including the hit CBS cop program “Blue Bloods.”
“That is complete horse shit,” Oliver declared. “It is deeply irresponsible of police to keep perpetuating a medical impossibility and for media outlets to keep amplifying it,” he added.
As Oliver elaborates, creating a nationwide panic over fentanyl is only worsening the opioid crisis as cops and others are now afraid to approach someone having an overdose, which in turn will delay the mental attention they need when time is a crucial factor. On top of that, Oliver says the freakout over fentanyl’s potency is also hampering the uptake of harm reduction strategies, which have been shown to work. Instead, treating fentanyl like a bogeyman that can kill you just by looking at it (it can’t, you’d have to be in a literal tornado of it) is ignoring the real issue at work.
(Via HuffPost)