While lawmakers worry about ‘rainbow fentanyl,’ some experts say fears of new street opioid overblown
DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick was looking over bulletins from other law enforcement agencies when he saw something that chilled him — an alert about a new kind of fentanyl that he said, “looks exactly like SweeTarts candy.”
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has dubbed it “rainbow fentanyl” and it comes in several forms, including pills that mimic genuine medication save for their bright and varied colors. Mendrick said the motivation behind these new versions is obvious.
“If you’re coloring it, there’s only one group you’re marketing to, and that’s youth,” he said.
He relayed his concerns to state Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) and recently she and some Republican colleagues introduced a bill that would add five years to the prison sentence of anyone convicted of selling fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, in that guise.
“It didn’t seem that our statutory language was strong enough to specifically target these bad activities,” she said. “The subterfuge involved in lacing drugs with fentanyl is leading to real deaths, both here in DuPage and nationwide.”
The DEA said rainbow fentanyl has been found in Illinois but declined to give details. Law enforcement agencies contacted by the Tribune, including the Illinois State Police, the Naperville and Elgin police and the DuPage County sheriff’s office, said they have yet to encounter it (the Chicago Police Department did not respond to requests for comment).
Chicago-area overdose prevention groups haven’t seen it, either, though Taylor Wood, drug-checking program manager for the Chicago Recovery Alliance, has come across powdered fentanyl that has been colored pink or purple.
“Even with party drugs, people can dye or flavor cocaine so it has a (taste) when snorted,” Wood said. “This isn’t uncommon. It’s really just done for marketing on the distribution side.”
America has a long record of unwarranted drug scares, from “reefer madness” to the hippies who supposedly plotted to spike Chicago’s drinking water with LSD. Some experts said this sounds like another one, giving little credence to the idea that dealers are using rainbow fentanyl to attract children, as the DEA originally contended (the agency has since adjusted its language to say “young people”).
“I remember when I was a kid and it was razor blades in apples,” said Bryce Pardo, a drug researcher with the Rand Corp. “(Courting children) brings a lot more unwanted attention to illicit distribution networks. That would bring down a lot more law enforcement scrutiny than they want.”
He said traffickers might be trying to differentiate their products, much as dealers stamp different logos on baggies of heroin or indicate that certain colors equate to stronger or weaker doses. The DEA said its testing hasn’t shown any difference in potency, but Pardo said the agency hasn’t made that data available to researchers.
Laura Fry, of Live4Lali, an overdose prevention group that serves the northern suburbs, was even more skeptical.
“Because of the work we do I know a lot of dealers, and no, they’re not going to be bagging it up and giving it out at Halloween,” she said. “It’s just scaremongering at its best.”
But there are indications a new trafficking strategy might be afoot. In September, police arrested two men in Connecticut who allegedly transported thousands of fentanyl pills in packages of Nerds and Skittles. A photo showed they didn’t resemble candy, but one of the most popular forms of the drug — replicas of pale blue oxycodone pills known as M30s.
On Tuesday, the DEA’s New York office announced the seizure of 15,000 fake M30 pills whose variety of pastel colors really did make them look like candy. The agency alleged they had been smuggled in a box filled with LEGO blocks.
Most ominously, perhaps, the Wall Street Journal recently interviewed a fentanyl producer in Mexico who said he aims to expand beyond M30s with skull-shaped pills that would come in a range of colors, offer greater potency and smell like caramel popcorn when melted.
Such pills, he predicted, “will generate a lot of demand.” He didn’t specify the target customer.
Though rainbow fentanyl has yet to establish a foothold in the Chicago area, Mazzochi, who is a patent lawyer and chemist as well as a legislator, said her bill is an attempt to get in front of the problem.
In watching the legal cannabis market, where raw weed has given way to a vast array of THC-infused edibles, Mazzochi said she expects fentanyl dealers to be equally creative.
“That’s just a matter of time,” she said.
The bill specifies tougher sentences for those convicted of selling fentanyl if it resembles a consumer food product or a cereal, candy, vitamin or gummy. The sentences would also apply if the drugs are brightly colored or carry the imprint of a cartoon character.
Mazzochi said her bill would also impose extra time on those who sell fentanyl in the guise of legitimate prescriptions such as Adderall, something law enforcement says is a growing problem, and would adjust the weight of seized drugs to account for the extra potency of fentanyl’s more powerful analogues (more weight means more time behind bars).
She said tougher sentences might persuade dealers to help investigators secure arrests farther up the distribution chain, but Pardo said the history of the drug war amply demonstrates that the threat of harsher punishment does not affect the behavior of traffickers.
Fry, meanwhile, said all street drugs should be viewed with suspicion no matter the color. Overdose prevention groups like hers offer test strips that indicate whether a substance contains fentanyl.
“The bottom line is if you’re going to use something, test it,” she said. “That’s our ongoing message across the board. Don’t take anything off the street, don’t take anything out of a bottle without your name on it. Test everything, whether it’s rainbow fentanyl or Xanax.”
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