Gov. Brad Little (R) announced the state would spend up to $1 million in new money on 'Operation Esto Perpetua,' Little's fight against illegal fentanyl in Idaho.
Some of that money will go toward a media campaign to educate the public on the dangers of the synthetic opioid. Between $100,000 and $200,000 is expected to go to purchase TruNarc devices; electronic scanners which can scan unknown substances and identify hundreds of compounds.
Idaho State Police already has four of the devices in use already, said agency spokesman Aaron Snell.
"We are using it very often out in the field as we're running across these various suspected controlled substances," he explained.
Officers coming across suspected illicit drugs can confiscate the substance and wait for lab testing, then track down the suspect for follow-up. State Police also uses NIK testing kits to determine what an unknown substance is quick. Those kits require officers to handle the unknown substance.
"You’re putting it in a baggie and shaking it up, and looking for the colors," Snell said. "That way you can tell, ‘we believe this is the substance that the rest of it is, so we can continue our probable cause and make an arrest.'"
The process for determining whether a substance is fentanyl, though, is a process of elimination. Officers have to go through a series of five tests to rule out other substances before they can assume a substance is fentanyl.
Immediately identifying is key to getting drugs and suspected drug traffickers off the streets, but Snell says the new devices are much better from a safety perspective because officers don't have to handle the unknown substance; the devices scans through plastic and glass.
"The risk to troopers and law enforcement has been shown to be less over the years as we're learning more and more about fentanyl and the dangers of it. However, there is still a substantial danger," he said.
Brandon del Pozo disagrees. He's a drug policy researcher, former law enforcement officer and police chief, and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University. Del Pozo was lead author of an article published in Health & Justice in November 2021 called 'Can touch this: training to correct police officer beliefs about overdose from incidental contact with fentanyl.'
"The American College of Medical Toxicology showed that, at the highest rate at which you can get fentanyl into the air, you'd have to breathe it in for 200 minutes to begin to feel the effects," del Pozo said. "And they would be a therapeutic effect, not an overdose effect." He said there's no science that's proven fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin in dangerous amounts.
He cites the casual nature of drug houses as an example: "They're not wearing Tyvek suits; one guy is eating Chinese food, the other guy is playing video games, and the third guy is cutting the drugs on a table and they're doing it in shorts and a t-shirt."
The fear law enforcement has of accidental fentanyl exposure comes from a 2016 Drug Enforcement Agency bulletin warning first responders that even a little bit of the drug could kill you if it got on your skin or you breathed it in. The credibility of the federal agency helped that advice spread, and once it got around, it was hard to undo even when the DEA issued a correction later.
But even if prioritizing the need for the new devices to increase officer safety around fentanyl exposure isn't fully rooted in the available science, the devices will help officers, Snell said.
"We would love to have these with our drug interdiction troopers and our domestic highway enforcement units, basically to amplify the tools that they have. That way, when they come across these suspected drugs, they're able to immediately get them off the road. And I think that would go a long way into reducing the total quantity of the drugs in the state."
The TruNarc devices cost about $26,000 each, Snell said. They have rechargeable batteries and no single-use accessories. The NIK tests for fentanyl, which contain five different reactor agents and a neutralizer, retail for more than $150 each.
For now, ISP is expecting to receive about a half-dozen more of the TruNarc devices in the coming months and will have at least one deployed in every geographic district.
The Link LonkJuly 29, 2022 at 11:42PM
https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/news/2022-07-29/gov-little-plans-media-blitz-drug-test-kits-in-next-stage-of-the-fight-against-fentanyl
Gov. Little plans media blitz, drug test kits in next stage of the fight against fentanyl - Boise State Public Radio
https://news.google.com/search?q=little&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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