The Pueblo County Sheriff's Office claimed last week that a deputy nearly died after a brief exposure to fentanyl. Experts and scientific researchers say it's highly unlikely.
The incident occurred at about 4 a.m. July 23 at a Loaf N' Jug in the 1700 block of Santa Fe Avenue, when deputies responded to a call about an unwanted person at the store, according to a PCSO news release.
Deputies conducted a routine pat search of the suspect and found suspected fentanyl pills and paraphernalia. The suspect also admitted that he smoked fentanyl prior to having contact with the deputies, who took the suspect into custody without incident and placed him in a patrol car while they processed the drugs and paraphernalia, according to the release.
It was during the processing that Pueblo Sheriff David Lucero believes the deputy likely inhaled fentanyl particulate from the pills and paraphernalia.
A two-minute snippet of body camera footage released by the PSCO shows the deputy appearing to feel ill, telling another deputy she felt dizzy and attempting to steady herself. The deputy assured her coworker several times she was OK, but as she attempted to wheel away the suspect's bike, she collapsed. The footage released by the PCSO shows the deputy collapsing, and when the second deputy turns her over, she appears to be unconscious.
The second deputy quickly administered a dose of agency-issued Narcan, an FDA-approved opioid overdose reversal drug, according to the release. The administration of Narcan, also known by the generic term naloxone, is not shown in the footage released by the sheriff's office.
The Chieftain filed an open records request with the PCSO for the full body camera footage of the incident on July 25 but the request had not been fulfilled by July 31.
A second dose of Narcan was administered and the deputy regained consciousness, according to the release. Lucero said she was then transported by ambulance to a local hospital where she was treated for the exposure and released. The deputy then recovered at home.
“This shocking incident demonstrates the dangers our deputies face with exposure to this deadly drug,” Lucero said in the July 24 news release. “This is quite scary to know that even just slight exposure can have such devastating effects.”
Lucero went on to say that the second deputy's administration of Narcan "likely saved her life."
After the exposure occurred, the PCSO contacted the Colorado State Patrol hazmat team to test and safely bag the pills and paraphernalia, according to the PCSO. The state patrol's presumptive test was positive for fentanyl, PCSO officials said in the release.
Research, experts cast doubt on claim
Experts in law enforcement and toxicology have doubts about the possibility of overdosing from accidental exposure.
Rick Brandt, a police chief in Evans, Colorado, and 40-year law enforcement veteran with experience training officers across the state in the use of naloxone, stated he has never seen a toxicologically confirmed report of a Colorado law enforcement officer overdosing from accidental fentanyl exposure.
"The long and short of it is the evidence suggests fentanyl, especially in the street-level forms we commonly find, can not be absorbed into the skin by touching it," he said. "The only type of fentanyl that can be absorbed into the skin is medically produced exodermal patches that are specifically designed for absorption."
Brandt continued that it is equally unlikely a law enforcement officer would suffer an overdose from breathing in fentanyl particulate.
"The best evidence today is that fentanyl has such a low vapor pressure that it doesn't float, it doesn't hover in the air, it falls. Research suggests that it might take hours in a very thick environment of fentanyl floating around a room for a meaningful amount to enter your bloodstream," he said.
Brandt stated that when similar claims have surfaced in Colorado communities, he has contacted law enforcement officials in those areas to gather as much information as he can.
"I don't know how many I've contacted, probably a dozen-ish. None of them, when asked about the lab screen at the hospital, said that there was actually a screen done," he said. "My takeaway from that, and from speaking to medical professionals, is that the likelihood is medical staff didn't believe there was an exposure and that there was no need for a screen to be completed."
Brandt specified that he was speaking generally from previous experience and lacked familiarity with the Pueblo case.
What scientific researchers say about second-hand fentanyl exposure
Researchers and experts often attribute the idea that fentanyl can cause a lethal overdose simply through contact to a 2016 statement from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency that warned "fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin" and "accidental inhalation of airborne powder can also occur."
In response to that statement, a 2017 joint statement from the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) and the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology (AATC) stated that fentanyl toxicity from incidental exposure was so unlikely as to be nearly impossible.
The statement by the ACMT and AACT detailed that the vapor pressure of fentanyl is very low, and an unprotected individual would require nearly 200 minutes of exposure to reach a dose of 100 micrograms of fentanyl, equivalent to 0.1 milligrams. The estimated lethal dose of fentanyl in adult humans is 2 milligrams, according to the European Union Drug Agency .
A 2023 report from National Public Radio also noted that NPR journalists "couldn't find a single case of a police officer who reported being poisoned by fentanyl or overdosing after encountering the street drug that was confirmed by toxicology reports."
NPR reported that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the CDC does believe some officers nationwide have experienced medical symptoms after encountering fentanyl. However, none of those cases involved actual overdoses and none appeared life-threatening.
A 2022 article published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, written by Josiah D. Rich, Jennifer J. Caroll and Brandon Del Pozo, a former police chief who studies addiction and drug policy at Brown University, offers a different theory to explain the myriad cases in which a law enforcement officer collapses after being exposed.
The article, titled "Police reports of accidental fentanyl overdose in the field: Correcting a culture-bound syndrome that harms us all," specifically cited a 2021 incident in which San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore released a dramatic video allegedly depicting a deputy overdosing on fentanyl following incidental exposure during an investigation in the field.
The video asserted the San Diego County deputy only survived thanks to the swift action of his colleagues, who administered four doses of intranasal naloxone.
While the article explained that "toxicologists have found it is impossible to inhale or transdermally absorb enough fentanyl to quickly overdose," it noted that such incidents should nonetheless be taken seriously as "distressing and underexplained medical events."
"The false belief that one has received a substantial dose can produce very real, distressing symptoms — panic, hyperventilation, vertigo, a racing heart — that are misrecognized as evidence of fentanyl’s known effects," the article states. "Misrecognized symptoms appear to confirm misinformation, and no one’s wellbeing is served."
The authors wrote that the "myth" surrounding fentanyl exposure can be deadly by itself, causing further stigma to opioid users through the idea that they are themselves dangerous to encounter and that their bodies and belongings are poisonous.
"We hear reports of first responders hesitant to deliver naloxone during genuine overdose emergencies due to fear of fentanyl," they wrote. "The myth, itself, could be deadly."
Pueblo sheriff maintains that deputy overdosed
In an interview with the Chieftain, Lucero acknowledged the scientific research surrounding fentanyl exposure but stated he still believes his deputy experienced an overdose.
"In the rest of the video, which was not initially released, you can actually see her agonal breathing, where she goes into this arrest," Lucero said. "There are people that do 30 pills a day, that are used to it and can handle it... but she didn't have any underlying medical issues. In the video, you can see her inhaling what was just burnt off the paper, and then it comes in contact with her bare skin and she touches her sweaty face."
"All indications are showing — and of course, we'll have the lab results, but we can't share that publicly — that it's an exposure."
Lucero stated that a screening was conducted on the deputy, but he said the PCSO could not release the results, citing HIPAA regulations.
Lucero stated that the primary reason he wanted to share the information was simply to highlight the danger of fentanyl in the community.
Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. The drug was responsible for an estimated 74,702 overdose deaths nationwide in 2023, according to data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control.
The PCSO seized 112,178 suspected fentanyl pills from Jan.1 to June 30, according to Lucero.
"That just shows you how much of this stuff is actually in the community," he said.
More: Southeast Colorado Opioid Region 19 highlights work to combat opioid epidemic
Questions, comments, or story tips? Contact Justin at jreutterma@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formally known as Twitter, @jayreutter1. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com .
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo sheriff claims deputy overdosed from fentanyl 'exposure.' Experts say it's unlikely
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