Two people have been arrested and charged after seven Virginia elementary students ate gummy bears from a plastic baggie that later tested positive for the potentially deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.
At first, it seemed the students were having an allergic reaction to something they ate Tuesday, Amherst County Public Schools said. The sheriff’s office conducted a field test of the bag, which had “a positive reaction for fentanyl,” the school district said.
“Preliminary investigation shows the students ingested gummy bears from a plastic baggie. In that baggie contained a residue, and the residue tested positive for fentanyl,” sheriff’s spokesperson Lt. Dallas Hill told CNN.
While I’m guessing this actually may have been a case involving fentanyl, be cautious with stories “confirming” it via a field test. Those things are garbage and do not test specifically for fentanyl and are often faulty. Fentanyl is the current boogeyman so they generally attribute things to that when they actually have no clue.
I have my doubts that this was fentanyl since no officers were improbably injured during the field test.
True. If it was fentanyl, at least one deputy would claim to have been in a coma for several days.
Back in my day, they used that scare mongering for meth.
“It is believed that at some point the bag came into contact with fentanyl and trace amounts remained on/in the bag,”
I was confused at first since most people like to smoke or inject their fent. Also, who is reusing a drug bag and putting food in it? I hope the kids aren’t traumatized.
Sounds like THC gummies that the dealers made near fent. As to how the kids got it or if they took it from a parents house I have no idea.
You got it. I have no doubt that the kids were sick, but small amounts of ingested fentanyl would not make the kids sick. It was likely THC gummies. That would explain the “allergic” reaction, aka flushing. Morphine can cause itching/flushing, but not generally in low doses. THC certainly does cause flushing though in high doses particularly in children, like you’d see with edibles.
I know it’s not important but do those mug shots look like they were taken from above to anyone else?
It looks like they are poking their heads through plywood cutouts of people sitting in barber chairs.
Better angle to avoid the double chin showing up (if there is one).
As someone that was a serious opiate addict I always look at stuff like this with suspicion. Fentanyl gummy bears aren’t a prescription thing as far as I know. So that means that someone presumably made them on purpose. But why? There are far better ways to do fentanyl than putting it on gummy bears. This headline makes no sense.
They were probably sugar free gummies and the kids got the explosive poopies.
If I’m reading it correctly, the gummies didn’t have fentanyl in them, the bag was reused and had traces of fentanyl in it that got onto the gummies.
While not impossible. It’s still extremely improbable in my opinion. I don’t think people understand just how small a hit of fentanyl is. In my experience $20 give or take depending on how good your relationship is with your dealer gets you 1/10 of a gram. Now keep in mind that when they say a lethal dose of fentanyl is the size of a few grains of salt. That they are talking about PURE fentanyl. What you get on the street is far from pure.
Then there is how you buy it. I have almost never bought fentanyl that came in a whole ass baggy. When it did it was still tied up in the corner. Opiate addicts are SERIOUS about getting every last crumb out of the bag.
Like even when you buy a gram of dope for between $150 and $200. That still comes tied in a corner baggy. And that’s a good amount of dope.
These reasons and more lead me to believe that this situation is improbable, but not impossible.
Here is a 1/10 of a gram of pink salt lightly coating the head of a dime for those that don’t know.
If it’s true then either they are morons moving weight, or really bad addicts and somehow nobody noticed.
Edit: I want to apologize for my grammar in this comment. I was cooking dinner and playing Badurs Gate 3 when I typed this. I fixed the most egregious mistakes, but lack the energy to fix them all.
I know it’s wrong to judge people based on their appearances, but they look like they belong on Red Dead Redemption wanted posters.
Yeah those shots look super weird.
I assume the cops there had a guy or two who fancies themselves a photographer, and fucked with the angle and lighting until everybody looks like a cartoonish villian
The photos are weird, but the people look totally normal. I wouldn’t think twice based on looks if they were elementary school teachers.
Glad the arrests were made. A messed up thing to do.
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It’s suspiciously similar to the gummy incident in Japan.
Although I guess it’s coincidence, one hypothesis is that there are organized people trying to addict youngsters into drugs.
The idea of drug dealers trying to addict kids to drugs has been popular since at least the 80s, and I’ve never seen a single credible report of it happening. It just doesn’t even make sense. Addiction doesn’t happen instantly, and even if it did, the kids wouldn’t understand the cravings they were having, wouldn’t know what to do about it, and wouldn’t have reliable access to money to pay a dealer.
It also doesn’t make sense from a dealer’s protective. A dealer would much rather risk jail if they get caught than risk being lynched by a mob of angry parents.
The cases in Japan were accidental, the sellers didn’t realize what was in the gummies.
This feels like intentional disregard for safety, at best.
Who do you mean by the seller? The producer of the gummies, who made gummies of a chemical that imitates marijuana? The same producer who continued to sell the gummies even after news articles circulated, and said that they’ll continue selling the gummies WITH THE CHEMICAL because it was not illegal? That’s intentional.
The store in Japan was unaware of the chemical or what it could do, and there was no way for them to predict that their customers would have such an adverse reaction.
The immediate response to the wave of illnesses in Japan was a change in Japanese law to ban that chemical and the shop immediately pulled it from sale and issued an apology.
Neither the shop nor the Japanese government has any say regarding what the producer of the gummies does outside of Japan.
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I have no idea how a store can be unaware of marijuana-imitation, but yeah, whatever.
I agree, we’re taking them at their word.
But I don’t think they were trying to sidestep the marijuana ban in Japan. Just trying to offer some novelty product to separate tourists from their money.
As I said, the incident in Japan was a complete accident unlike what happened with these two characters.
So, you take their words, and I don’t. Fair.
The manufacturer is based in Japan, they said they’ll continue to produce it because it’s legal. I don’t know which store you’re talking about.
I genuinely have no idea what you’re talking about.
re-reads old news articles
(Damn, this was already a month ago.)
So it was produced by an Osaka company, but the stores selling their product wasn’t the reason people got sick. Some “guy” at an outdoors festival was passing them out to minors. The manufacture specifically forbade minors from buying or consuming them. Once festival bro bought them, it was out of their hands.
And if the Japanese company that makes these gummies wants to keep making them, they do have to change recipe to omit HHCH. If they don’t, they’ll run afoul of the new law now banning it from use in Japan.
Was HHCH the real reason 20 people got sick at one festival on one day? Dunno.
I don’t know either, but the sole fact that the guy distributed HHCH to people unaware of that marijuana replacement chemical is inexcusable of him.
Well, yeah. But what’s strange is there are no articles about the guy. Only the store that sold it and the company that made it. Can they not find him?
Tricking someone into taking drugs is assault. The victims often have a really bad time. People who use drugs usually understand that. That guy must have been either an asshole, a moron, or both.
